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COPYRIGHT DEPOStr 





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"EXTENDED VISION!" 

— OR,— 

"LOOKING BEYOND THIS 
WORLD" 



BY 

REV. G. TABOR THOMPSON, D. D. 



MACOY PUBLISHING AND 
MASONIC SUPPLY CO. 

45 JOHN STREET, NEW YORK 



31 tot 
TTir 



COPYEIGHT, 1910, 
BY 

G. Tabor Thompson 



CCLA278256 



This volume is most lovingly dedicated 
to my arisen 

MOTHER AND FATHER, 



BY 

The Authob 



INTRODUCTION. 

The author does not claim this volume to be a 
miracle of erudition. 

Able men have written metaphysically on these sub- 
jects, and delighted the learned readers who sat at 
their feet. 

The object in this work is to take great truth and 
clothe it in such simple language that those who are 
not scholastic may understand its every page. In an 
inter-denominational way we have endeavored to lov- 
ingly disclose to those who sit in the shadow of a 
great loss, and cannot penetrate the veil which divides 
the seen from the unseen, the latest truths about 
physical death and the life beyond our ken. 

If we have been inspired to dry the tears of the 
mourner, bind up the broken hearted, and enable the 
disconsolate to rejoice in the knowledge of reunion 
beyond the cross-roads of time, our efforts have not 
been in vain. 

G. Tabor Thompson, D. D., 
526 Spruce St., 

Philadelphia, Pa. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 
I. 



II. 
III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X. 

XL 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 

XVIII. 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 



PAGE 

How Long Does It Take for a Soul 
to Reach Its Heavenly Home? . 25 

What Is Death? 37 

There Are No Dead 47 

Do Spirits Suffer When They See 

Us in Sorrow? 57 

Heaven a City 69 

Friends in the Great Beyond ... 81 

Celestial Attendants 91 

Heaven a Country 101 

Spirit Soldiers of the Civil War . .111 

Heaven a Condition 121 

Suicide and Its After Results . . . 129 

Heaven's Vast Shadow 139 

Died Outside the Church . . . .151 
Employment of Immortals . . . .165 

No Father on Earth 179 

Our Mother Which Art in Heaven . 191 

Mates in Spirit Life 209 

Our Brothers and Sisters Hereafter . 223 
Green Graves Not Three Feet Long . 235 
Redemption Not Confined to Man . 251 
Wig- Wagging From Glory Land . 265 



THE ETERNAL GOODNESS. 

Within the maddening maze of things, 

And tossed by storm and flood, 
To one fixed stake my spirit clings : 

I know that God is good. 

I long for household voices gone, 

For vanished smiles I long; 
But God hath led my dear ones on, 

And He can do no wrong. 

I know not what the future hath 

Of marvel or surprise, 
Assured alone that life and death 

His mercy underlies. 

And if my heart and flesh are weak 

To bear an untried pain, 
The bruised reed He will not break, 

But strengthen and sustain. 

And so, beside the silent sea, 

I wait the muffled oar ; 
No harm from Him can come to me 

On ocean or on shore. 

I know not where his islands lift 

Their fronded palms in air; 
I only know I cannot drift 

Beyond His love and care. 

— Whittier. 



FOREWORD 

Having been most kindly invited by the 
author of the following deeply interesting 
and instructive pages to preface his words 
with a few of mine, I feel it only needful or 
desirable to call attention to the extremely 
widespreading interest now being manifested 
throughout the world in the intensely fascinat- 
ing subjects which are most lucidly and con- 
vincingly handled in this book. 

As I have been a lecturer and traveller 
from childhood, and my protracted journey- 
ings, together with my literary work, have 
brought me in contact with all sorts of people 
in various countries of the world, it has come 
within the range of my actual experience to 
know that in a multitude of significant in- 
stances there is a loud and strong demand for 
tjust such practical, heart-to-heart and head- 
to-head instruction as the reader will find in 

11 



12 dtettDeD Vision or, 

the several brilliant essays which constitute 
this volume. Though scepticism may be ram- 
pant in some directions, and orthodox conser- 
vatism unshaken in others, the great mass of 
the people to-day cannot satisfy themselves 
either with the negations of materialism or the 
dogmatic assertions of old-fashioned varieties 
of theology. The cry everywhere is for sound, 
fearless reasoning, and whenever possible for 
some palpable demonstration of the verity of 
the doctrine of our conscious individual sur- 
vival beyond physical dissolution. The peren- 
nial interest attaching to this problem can 
never be seriously diminished so long as be- 
reavement continues and affection outlives the 
disintegration of the external frame. As our 
race becomes increasingly sensitive to super- 
physical impressions, and as intuition becomes 
a more generally recognized available human 
faculty, the need for external phases of psy- 
chical phenomena may be gradually outgrown, 
seeing that these are only premonitory signals 
pointing the way to a fuller comprehension 
of the spiritual universe in which all of us are 
dwelling now, whether we are aware of it or 
not. But until a much deeper and far more 



Looking depend tins ft&otlD 13 

nearly universal extension of psychic faculty 
is manifested than appears at present, there 
will certainly continue both call and place, for 
those many phases of spiritual ministration 
which, ranging all the way from the rudimen- 
tary to the highly advanced, serve to consti- 
tute a mental stairway up which multitudes 
of intellects can climb, while as yet clear spir- 
itual vision remains the developed possession 
of only the gifted few. 

The flippant popular criticism of average 
psychic messages, based on the plea that they 
are extremely trivial, has been superbly dealt 
with by Prof. Hyslop and other learned mem- 
bers of well-known Societies for Psychical Re- 
search, who are bringing to the work of cru- 
cial investigation trained minds by no means 
predisposed to accept anything without 
searching scrutiny. 

The chief reasons for the often unsatisfac- 
tory nature of communications with unseen 
planes of Nature may be classified under two 
distinctive heads: First, the lack of thor- 
oughness with which we attempt to prepare 
ourselves for profound investigation; Sec- 
ond, the admitted superficiality of our 



14 <E*tettDeti Vision or, 

thoughts and desires when we seek commun- 
ion with unseen entities. 

For my own part, I do not attempt to 
harshly criticise, much less would I presume 
to condemn this state of affairs. I merely 
mention it as an existing phenomenon with 
which we have at present to deal, though we 
are not justified in supposing that it will al- 
ways continue, and it is even now becoming 
considerably modified. Occultism is, taken as 
a whole, a vast system of revelation, and when 
intelligently regarded as such, the many seem- 
ing discordancies and discrepancies which mar 
the Psychic Movement will be seen to possess 
considerable educational, and even ethical im- 
portance. Is it not a matter of great moment, 
as well as interest, for all of us to know some- 
thing definitely of the inner life we are now 
living, which our discarnate friends are also 
living, and which we must continue to live 
when we are dismantled of the fleshly robes 
which now encircle us? We are spiritual en- 
tities here and now, no matter how we may 
disport ourselves, and it is indeed desirable 
that all should become cognizant of the fact 
that transition does not alter character nor 



Looking IBeponD tf»0 MJotiD 15 

change the bent of inclination. We are evi- 
dently not, as a rule, in communion with other 
than definitely human entities when we extend 
our experience of telepathy or clairvoyance 
into the supra-mundane state, and as we ac- 
custom ourselves to employ just such phrase- 
ology as the foregoing sentence, in place of 
an older or less lucid terminology, we shall 
quickly outgrow the ancient superstition 
which still lingers in many places, that there 
is something radically different in spirit-com- 
munion from telepathy or thought-transfer- 
ence. 

Recent discoveries and demonstrations in 
the ever-enlarging field of psychology are con- 
vincing thinkers and reasoners more and more 
that Sir Oliver Lodge could not have found 
a better title for his widely-discussed tribute 
to the genuineness and scientific value of psy- 
chic evidences than the one he chose, "The 
Survival of Man," for that word "survival" 
exactly describes the shade of meaning the 
learned author wishes to convey. This term 
suggests no "other" life or world, simply a 
continued life beyond the dissolution of the 
flesh. 



16 (EstettDeD Vision or, 

The very simplicity of a rational religion 
leads many people to reject it for some system 
far more complicated and much more difficult 
to prove, but the fundamentals of a sane and 
sober spiritual philosophy are now being so 
widely advocated and disseminated that it may 
be truly said that we are accepting the funda- 
mental propositions of modernism under sev- 
eral different names. Paradoxical though this 
may sound, we are abundantly justified in say- 
ing that the apparent contradictions in alleged 
spiritual communications are, in many in- 
stances, concordances, because they serve to 
illustrate what it is one of the chief missions 
of the revelation to confirm. One communi- 
cator says one thing about spirit-life, and an- 
other tells a widely different tale. Far from 
this fact presenting an insuperable obstacle to 
the acceptance of spirit-messages, as many 
have hastily imagined, it demonstrates an ac- 
tual condition of affairs on both sides the mys- 
tic veil, which we should all do well to ponder 
seriously, for it throws a great amount of light 
on many a strange "memorable relation" of 
Swedenborg's kindred relations, furnished by 
other distinguished seers or prophets. No one 



Looking 15egonD tins ffl3otiD 17 

ever describes anything except as it appears to 
him, for the simple reason that he is limited 
by his own consciousness, but as in this mate- 
rial world we are evidently far more influenced 
by physical necessities and geographical limi- 
tations than we are in spirit, we often remain 
physically in the society of persons and in the 
vicinity of objects though we feel no link of 
sympathy uniting us with any of them. The 
facts are quite dissimilar when we are consider- 
ing psychical relationships, for in spirit-life 
propinquity and distance are regulated by af- 
finity in the one case and lack of affinity in 
the other. This refers as much, or almost as 
much, to objects as to individuals; there is, 
therefore, immense reasonableness in the say- 
ing, "he went to his own place," no matter to 
whom the remark is made specially to apply. 
Once let this consideration be adequately 
weighed, and we shall find growing out of it 
abundant material for the deepest thought, 
and while it must have its serious and warn- 
ing aspects, and these we often greatly need, 
it will also prove freighted with all-sufficient 
consolation in hours of bitterest bereavement 
when we express but one cry and realize but 



18 OBstenDeo Vision or, 

one petition — that we may receive some token 
of the continued life and love of those ex- 
ceptionally dear to us. 

The gifted and fearless writer, whose words 
these comments do but feebly preface, deals 
some hard and well-deserved blows at spurious 
kinds of theology w T hich run counter to all the 
demands of reason and affection and which 
have evidently been invented by almost de- 
humanized scholastics who have meditated so 
long upon single aspects of a question that 
they have grown quite incompetent to deal 
with any topic in a broad or universal way. 

That souls are "lost" because they pass out 
of physical existence without certain ministra- 
tions of religion, is a sad and sorry fiction 
which travesties an ancient doctrine of Occult- 
ism which extended clairvoyance may confirm. 
Among Occultists certain ceremonies have 
generally been regarded as effective in the 
sense that Masonic ceremonial may accompany 
the reception of members into the craft. A 
man may be a very good and highly respected 
citizen with whom high Masons are glad to 
associate socially on friendly terms, but unless 
he is received into the lodge he cannot wear 



ilooktng 05egonD tfn* MJorlO 19 

the apron or be allowed to take part in the 
ritual of the order, or even to be present as a 
spectator at the Masonic rites. As it is true 
that there are churches and orders in the world 
of spirits, as well as on this outer earth, it is 
quite conceivable that means have been de- 
vised for keeping up a close connection be- 
tween the incarnate and excarnate members 
of a fellowship through the agency of cere- 
monial, but to imply that a spiritual entity 
is doomed to endless punishment or subjected 
to annihilation because certain rites have not 
been performed on earth is a doctrine so hid- 
eous that no condemnation of it can well be 
too ferocious. We must learn to see things 
in something like due proportions before we 
can safely even speculate concerning the con- 
dition of an individual in the spiritual uni- 
verse. We have a right to avail ourselves of 
whatever we conceive to be "means of grace" 
or aids to spiritual development, but it can 
never be too strongly insisted that "salvation" 
is through character, and that neither rituals 
or doctrines are of any avail except in so far 
as they tend to ennoble character. That is 
where we must rest our case finally in every 



20 <£*ten&eD Vision ot, 

instance. Does a doctrine or a practice make 
for the spiritual or moral betterment of those 
who entertain and practice it? This is the 
crucial test, and one that the thinking world 
is determined to apply to all isms. 

Feeling satisfied that the general trend of 
the teaching in this present volume is truly 
onward and upward, it is with sincere pleas- 
ure that I offer the author my congratulations 
and best wishes on the publication of his care- 
fully written and intensely interesting work, 
coupled with the sincere conviction that this 
valuable addition to practical thought-pro- 
voking literature will be the means of afford- 
ing a vast amount of comfort to many sor- 
rowers, needed exhortation to many who have 
drifted, and a valid answer to the pressing in- 
quiries of many more who while not to be 
numbered with either the mourning or the 
careless are still in need of light on the road 
which they are somewhat darkly travelling. 

The following verses seemed to write them- 
selves through my fingers on the typewriter 
as I essayed the task of compiling a dedica- 
tion for this happy, healthy book: 



Looking 'JSeponD M8 Wotlh 21 

Go forth, brave messenger of truth, proclaim the tid- 
ings far and nigh, 

Assure us that the Spirit-world is not alone beyond 
the sky. 

But here and now around us all where'er our wan- 
dering footsteps stray 

Confined to no especial place, but everywhere a broad 
highway. 

What is the spiritual life? We often ask, and then 

we strive 
To place it in some special groove where only certain 

forms can thrive, 
But whenso'er we come to know the spirit world is 

now and here 
A life continuous we shall grasp, and soon dismiss 

all foolish fear. 

Tis character alone that builds a mansion in that 
unseen space 

Where every sentiment and thought must surely take 
its rightful place, 

Not by belief or outward act can we true bliss in 
spirit know, 

For only from a lovely life lived inwardly, can bless- 
ings flow. 

Death is illusion, none are dead, and verily no soul 
can die, 

Though it may quit its mortal frame in spirit-pres- 
ences still 'tis nigh, 

Thus do we celebrate new birth when outward gar- 
ments drop away, 

Celestial ministers attend the spirit passing to new 
day. 



22 dtett&eD Vision ot, 

No matter if within some fold men call a church, or 

though outside, 
The spirit passes to its home, through noble love 'tis 

glorified. 
Anthems may peal and organs swell, or quiet silence 

may prevail 
The life that has been lived on earth determines how 

the soul can sail. 

Mates in the spirit world are those nearest to us in 

bonds of love, 
We may have met them on the earth, or find them 

but in spheres above; 
But here or there it matters not, the spirit seeks and 

finds its own 
And in sympathy divine discovers love's immortal 

throne. 

If when we suffer friends removed from outward 
cares can find a way 

To cheer us up and help us on they thus their sym- 
pathy display, 

But those who know far more than we of how earth's 
sadness turns to joy, 

Help by their counsel, but grieve not, knowing the 
good of pain's employ. 

Conditions in the worlds beyond the portals which 
divide our state 

Are of our making inwardly. Each thought encour- 
aged forms a gate, 

Or proves a magnet to attract its kindred in the 
realms unseen ; 

All pure affections robe the soul in fair and glorious 
psychic sheen. 



Looking TStvonti tW motlD 23 

How long will it require for souls to tread the path 
to life beyond ? 

A single instant may suffice to fully weave the mystic 
bond, 

Affection deep and strong can bid defiance to all out- 
ward bars; 

We are not limited by space, distance can prove no 
kindred stars. 

Brothers and sisters, kindred all, united in a common 

love, 
Friends who through quenchless sympathy united 

evermore must prove, 
Reveal to us the sacred law and help us nobly to 

aspire 
That when from earth we take our flight, brightly 

will burn Heaven's beacon fire. 

W. J. Colville. 
New York, August, 19 10. 



Extended Vision 

or, 

Looking Beyond this World 

CHAPTER I 

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR THE SOUL TO 
REACH THE HEAVENLY HOME? 

In passing from Maine to California, days 
and hours are necessary. Transportation and 
transportation facilities are studied by many 
bright minds in order to redeem time and re- 
duce cost. 

In going from one continent to another, 
there are few of the hardships of the olden 
times. The voyage is made in days now, 
where it used to require weary weeks and 
months. The modern steamships are such 
floating palaces, one cannot fully realize what 
an ocean voyage meant when sailing-craft, or 
old-time steamboats were required. Now an 

25 



M CstenHeH ®i$i on or, 

ocean voyage is the summer outing of thou- 
sands of American tourists. The gradual per- 
fection of airships is just helping to solve the 
new problems of transportation. Soon those 
who are sea sick on the briny deep, will find 
it a joy to pass through the sky, as the birds 
migrate. Beating the air like the mighty 
eagle, or cutting the foam like the great 
Leviathans, will soon make the passage from 
one part of the world to another only a pleas- 
ant pastime. 

It is difficult to prophesy the joys of travel 
in store for those of the next decade, or gen- 
eration. But what about pushing out from the 
shores of time, over the sea of death, for the 
peaceful harbor of eternal deliverance? Have 
there been no discoveries here? Are the theo- 
logians making no announcements which will 
be hailed with delight by those who travel, 
whether they will or no? Must poets continue 
to write about "Death's Dark River?" Will 
children always sing about "Jordan's Stormy 
Banks?" After all, is this voyage to be so 
dreaded? Out of the hundreds of millions 
who have gone over, has no one been heard 
from, and no report been rendered? We hope 



Looking TBegonO tiri0 motID 27 

to be able to throw some light on the way, and 
to ring out hope from the "Harbor Bells of 
Heaven." We are reminded of a scene which 
was enacted on the Atlantic coast a few years 
ago. A party pushed out for the fishing banks 
at a famous summer resort; everything went 
well for a time. At last the clouds became 
black; the waves dashed high; the thunder 
rolled; the lightning seemed to cut the very 
heavens in twain. Consternation spread over 
the faces of the once happy party, and many 
feared a grave in the mighty deep. A lady 
crept up to the captain, who was calmly guid- 
ing the smack, and asked: "Captain, is there 
any fear?" The bronzed skipper, who had 
never lost a soul, and knew just what to do in 
an emergency, replied: "Yes, madam. There 
is lots of fear; but not a bit of danger." Be 
comforted when you are to take the outward 
voyage, and for those of your own household 
who have gone, rest in perfect poise, for the 
trip was not as long or as dangerous, as you 
may have feared. 

Perhaps some of the readers have been con- 
nected with a church where they teach that 
many souls were wrecked, and never did reach 



28 €*tenDet> Vision or, 

the harbor of heaven. Miserable comforters! 
Such leaders are not posted on heavenly trans- 
portation facilities. They are more antide- 
luvian than Noah's Ark. Learn to be opti- 
mistic along spiritual lines as well as in mat- 
ters of material moment. 

At the transition scene some preach, "No 
immortality at present." "Death is the pen- 
alty of sin." "They go down into the grave to 
wait until the blast of the angelic trumpet 
proclaims the dawning of the day of Immor- 
tality." If this instruction is true, poor Abel 
is experiencing a very long journey from 
Earth to Heaven, worse by far than that of 
the early settlers of our country. The Pilgrim 
Fathers would have lost heart under such cir- 
cumstances. Has Abel's death sentence, be- 
cause of sin, already lasted six thousand years ? 
Where does justice come in if another sleeps 
but a day, before this wonderful Judgment? 
The offence the same in both cases. One sleeps 
a day, another for thousands of years. Such 
instruction is only the ministry of ignorance. 
The body only goes into the grave; and that 
simply because it is discarded for a better one. 
Sin has nothing to do with it. That body will 



Looking OBeponD tins motID 29 

never be needed again by the individual who 
was divested of it, any more than the baby 
body of that person will be again utilized. 

Another dangerous school of religionists 
commission many thousands of men in all 
parts of the world to say that there is a wait- 
ing place for the soul, ere it is able to reach 
heaven. How well we know that the crude, 
undeveloped individual does not enter the 
same spirit conditions hereafter, as does a re- 
fined and spiritual person. "Every man in 
his own order." "Star differeth from star in 
glory," "So shall it be in the resurrection." 
Nothing to keep one down but self. Every- 
thing to encourage one to evolve. All the 
stars are in the firmament, though they differ 
in magnitude. All souls safe, saved, and satis- 
fied, so far as salvation goes ; though ever seek- 
ing to learn and grow better. 

Socrates said, "You may kill me providing 
you can catch me." No spirit has been caught 
by Priest, Parish, or Potentate, and thrust 
into an intermediate state, to do penance for 
sin, in a man-made purgatory. A half-way 
house where a spirit waits until earthly friends 
put up enough cash to induce spiritual advisors 



30 dtenDeO Vision ot, 

to pray them out, is surely unthinkable to peo- 
ple of average intelligence. Is monqy a legal 
tender in glory? If so, how is it that only men 
of the earth are enriched by it? If these souls 
were absolved before they die, if the blood of 
atonement paid all the debt they owed, why 
keep them incarcerated until the bill is paid the 
second time? In the name of common hon- 
esty, I assert it is not right here or hereafter 
to receive pay twice for the same debt. Such 
a transaction would be an injustice to the One 
who is alleged to have paid the debt on the 
tree. Such treatment would be a great wrong 
to the one held in spiritual darkness. Such 
procedure is a crime on the men who receive 
gold for such service. Such a belief is chain- 
ing millions of poor men and women who are 
denying themselves to better the conditions of 
their dead. 

Think on these things, O, toiling men and 
women of earth; and be not pauperized by a 
false system. If it be true that there are no 
eternal derelicts, that souls are not waiting 
for a remote "Judgment Day," that no de- 
tention is necessary because of earthly conduct, 
how long, then, does it take a soul to reach the 



Looking TBepond tins ft&orid 31 

heavenly home? The thief on the cross was 
told by "The Man of Sorrows": "To-day 
shalt thou be with me in Paradise." No eter- 
nal drifting because he had not been a good 
man. No fires of purgatory because of stained 
character. The record does not say that he 
had experienced conversion, been baptized, ac- 
cepted any particular creed or person, been 
inducted into any church, or ever received 
"Extreme Unction"; yet Jesus is reported to 
have voiced these comforting and hopeful 
words, "To-day shalt thou be with me in Para- 
dise." 

According to the Hebrew measurement of 
time, a day was from sunset to sunrise. This 
measurement was taken from the Book of 
Genesis, where we read — "The evening and the 
morning were the first day." "The evening 
and the morning were the second day," etc. 
Following this division of time, and connect- 
ing it with the scene of the Crucifixion, we 
are able to closely approximate the time nec- 
essary for an undeveloped soul to reach its 
spirit sphere, and by using the words of Paul, 
state the time necessary for one whose spiritual 
condition has been trained in the School of An- 



32 <2B3EtenDeU Vision ot, 

gelic evolution to reach this sphere. The Jew- 
ish Sabbath began at 6 o'clock Friday even- 
ing. It was necessary for the bodies of crimi- 
nals executed on that day to be taken from 
the cross before the Sabbath began at sun- 
down, lest the day be desecrated. Jesus, with 
"Titus," and another robber, were being cru- 
cified. According to the record the first named 
must have passed out between three and four 
o'clock. His spirit sped to Paradise, there to 
welcome Titus somewhat later in the day. 
Had either of the malefactors expired after 
six o'clock, the laws of the Sabbath would 
have been violated. Had Titus left the world 
after six o'clock, the prophecy of the Man of 
Nazareth could not have been fulfilled. These 
words were spoken late Friday afternoon, and 
must needs be fulfilled before the setting of 
the sun. Somewhere near the close of the 
day — we will say at 5:30 o'clock — the Jews 
paid a visit to the crosses, with authority from 
Pilate to break the legs of the men, if alive, 
so as to hasten death. They state that Jesus 
was lifeless, but turning to the two robbers, 
they found them quite alive. Their legs were 
broken by the big club of the cruel execution- 



Looking 15epoitD t|»0 »rlD 33 

ers, and they were quickly shocked into death. 
By the time the bodies were down from the 
trees it must have been only a few minutes of 
six. The Sabbath was kept inviolate, and the 
spirit of Titus reached Paradise just before 
the sun dipped. We should hear Jesus cry: 
"Said I not unto thee, 'To-day shalt thou be 
with me in Paradise?' " Five or ten minutes 
were more than time enough for the spirit of 
this undeveloped young man to find his home 
in Paradise. The spiritual-minded, the ones 
who are ripe for angelic plucking (as the fruit 
matures on the tree ready for the gathering 
hand), these reach the heavenly home even 
quicker than those whose souls are heavy with 
the weight of guilt. 

Paul, speaking of the good, says : "Absent 
from the body, present with the Lord." This 
is instantaneous passage. When the writer 
leaned over the bed to watch the passing of 
his mother's spirit to the better-land, strange 
thoughts filled his brain. Day after day and 
night after night he had watched over her 
and nursed her, noticing the waning life- 
forces, and noting that one function after an- 
other refused to perform life's duties — yet 



34 (EstettDeO Vision or, 

the spirit seemed loathe to leave the worn-out 
body on the shores of Time. When the last 
breath was finally expelled, and the "Eyes 
would not lift again, though I might call and 
call," I quickly remembered that the spirit 
was going on a journey it never had under- 
taken before. For years I had not left her 
to go alone. Even on a trolley-car some one 
was present to relieve her of every care. I 
wondered when I had sensed she had gone, if 
she experienced loneliness ; for she had said to 
me only a few hours before: "I wish I could 
take you with me." I thought of Paul writing 
about the "Spiritual Wickedness in the Heav- 
enlies," of "Ascending above principalities and 
powers," of "Wrestling with things greater 
than flesh and blood"; and I felt as though I 
must fly to her side, take her by the arm, as 
I had done often on earth, and lead her past 
the points of danger to her destination. 

I never felt my weakness and littleness as I 
did when shaken with the fear that she had 
gone beyond my reach, where I could not serve 
her. My soul suffered in agony, not be- 
cause of death, but rather because I desired 
to usher her into larger life. I had experi- 



Looking IBeponD tin's ftOoriO 35 

enced the joy on earth of fitting up a home 
for her, and setting her feet into the place 
without cost or care on her part. Here I was 
impotent. I looked back to the bed and only- 
saw a worn-out envelope of clay; so changed 
by the suffering there was nothing which re- 
sembled my lovely mother, save the beautiful 
white hair, and the hands folded, never to be 
unfolded. As I sat by that body of death with 
no relative within a hundred miles, my heart 
was almost paralyzed with fear — fear that the 
journey might be too great for her, and some 
harm might reach her dear spirit. I looked 
up but could see nothing. I reached out, but 
my arm was too short. Turning my attention 
to the dear form which had to be prepared 
for God's acre, a sweet peace stole over me, 
and these words came rushing into my mind, 
"To-day— in Paradise." "Absent— Present." 
Years have passed, and tears have never dried, 
for earth is a strange place without mother; 
yet joy fills my heart when I remember she 
left my home Wednesday and reached her 
home the same Wednesday. When the record 
showed "Absent" on the earth side, it showed 
"Present" on the heaven side. When she had 



36 (Estentieti Vision or, 

strength enough to come back and pay me a 
visit, her first words were, "My mother met 
me, and took me to the home prepared for 
me." My loss is being bravely borne since it 
is her gain. 

Dear reader, your departed made a quick 
journey from the home of earth to their heav- 
enly home. Before the telegraph key had 
time to tick out the fact of their transition, 
they were Home. Our journey will be as 
pleasant, and our home as satisfactory, when 
the time to exchange worlds is ours. 



Looking lBeponD tins morio 37 



CHAPTER II 

WHAT IS DEATH? 

THE TWO MYSTERIES. 

We know not what it is, dear, this sleep so deep and 

still ; 
The folded hands, the awful calm, the cheek so pale 

and chill; 
The lids that will not lift again, though we may call 

and call; 
The strange, white solitude of peace that settles over 

all. 

We know not what it means, dear, this desolate heart- 
pain, — 

This dread to take our daily way, and walk in it again. 

We know not to what other sphere the loved who 
leave us go; 

Nor why we're left to wonder still; nor why we do 
not know. 

But this we know : our loved and dead, if they should 

come this day, — 
Should come and ask us, "What is life?" not one of 

us could say. 
Life is a mystery as deep as ever death can be ; 
Yet, O, how sweet it is to us, this life we live and see ! 



38 (BztzntJtti IHsfion or, 

Then might they say, — these vanished ones, — and 

blessed is the thought ! — 
"So death is sweet to us, beloved, though we may 

tell you naught; 
We may not tell it to the quick — this mystery of 

death, — 
Ye mav not tell us, if ye would — the mystery of 

breath." 

The child who enters life comes not with knowledge 
or intent, 

So those who enter death must go as little children 
sent, 

Nothing is known. But I believe that God is over- 
head; 

And as life is to the living, so death is to the dead. 

— Mary Mapes Dodge. 

WHAT IS DEATH? 

There is such a thing as Death to the Mate- 
rialist. It means the total and final extinction 
of a human being, when the earth body falls 
into dust. Such thinkers say: "Farewell for- 
ever!" How can extinction fare — well? This 
doctrine is so repugnant that even the most of 
those who have had no evidence of Futurity 
choose rather to be classed with agnostics. 
Those who have knowledge of the beyond feel 
it incumbent on them to say that death is the 
total, and the permanent, cessation of all the 
yital functions in an animal or vegetable body. 



JLoofeinff OBeponD t|)f0 Wotin 39 

These functions cease ; because the life — what- 
ever that may be — goes out of the organic 
body. Life is eternal; but not eternal in cer- 
tain bodies from which it may be withdrawn. 
The dead body gradually disintegrates into 
its original chemical elements ; and these freed 
elements enter into new combinations in plants 
and animals. This does not apply to the in- 
dividualized spiritual life — for that ascends to 
its own sphere in the Spirit World. 

Man, in this present earth-condition, is a 
compound being. The outer envelope is made 
up of coarse material which can be seen by the 
physical eye; this can be felt and weighed. 
There is, besides this, a spiritual body. Paul 
says: "There is a natural body and there is a 
spiritual body." Both in the present tense. 
The spiritual body is of a very much finer ma- 
terial and cannot be seen or felt except by one 
who is a psychic. This body is so ethereal 
there is little weight to it. Experiments have 
recently been made with the body of criminals 
a moment before death, and a moment there- 
after, and there seems to be a difference of a 
few ounces. The cadaver being somewhat 
lighter — which indicates \* some that the spir- 



40 45 * t e n D e D Vision or, 

itual body is so very light that the soul's re- 
ceptacle after death could be lifted by a very 
small child. Truly are we fearfully and won- 
derfully made! 

Quite a familiar illustration is a hypothet- 
ical indication of the spirit-body. Persons 
who have lost a limb feel pain and discomfort 
in that member just as if it were still joined 
to the body. A notable instance is on record 
where one had suffered the amputation of an 
arm. For months that man had the sensation 
of the fingers being in a cramped conditipn; 
unknown to him the severed member was ex- 
humed and the fingers were found as he felt 
them. These were straightened out, the arm 
re-buried; when all cramp and pain left the 
individual. 

No surgeon has ever amputated a spirit 
limb. That body being whole takes on the 
sensations of discomfort which a cramped 
physical body would experience. The body 
which is perishable is mainly composed of car- 
bon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. The 
spiritual inter-penetrates the natural for days, 
months or years, and enables it to perform its 
functions. When the spiritual withdraws the 



Hooking 15epond tins Wiotin 41 

physical perishes. Within the spiritual body- 
is the ego. Death is the separation of the im- 
perishable spirit body and spirit from the per- 
ishable physical body. It is right to nicely 
robe the corpse for the grave. It is proper to 
erect a suitable tombstone, and see that the 
grave is kept green, for it is dear to relatives 
because of what inhabited it. Dr. Mason sat 
in a church one day listening to a funeral ora- 
tion over the remains of a talented son. Grief 
was too deep for tears, but when he saw the 
college men lift the casket on their shoulders, 
as they were about to convey it to its silent 
resting place, he said: "Young men, tread 
softly; you bear the temple of a spiritual 
body." 

The happy smile so often seen on the face 
of the dead is the last impress made by the de- 
parting soul on the body, as they see the bliss 
into which they are entering, or look into the 
faces of those who preceded them. 

We owe a duty to the dying, as well as to 
the living. This is frequently forgotten, if, 
indeed, it is sensed at all. Those who love the 
dying one should try and forget their part in 
death's tragedy, and facilitate the inevitable 



42 (B^ttnntn iHfffon or, 

departure rather than to prevent it. The de- 
sire to hold one in the form makes it hard for 
the spirit to be freed from the body. One who 
was passing out begged the mother to loosen 
her finger. "It bindeth me, it holdeth me," 
sighed the little one. The most loving friends 
are the unselfish ones ; those who think of the 
welfare of the one who goes on the long jour- 
ney. 

How unwise it is to conform to fashion in 
conjunction with these parting scenes. Rela- 
tives in half hiding, up to and including the 
funeral exercises, friends clothed in dark gar- 
ments, and even crepe, which are calculated to 
depress the mourner and hold the liberated in- 
dividual back in its progression. Black cas- 
kets, hearses, door hangings, letter paper, etc. 
Strange, black tombstones are not used. All 
of these things are not in keeping with the 
glowing occasion. We have no right to con- 
duct such sacred farewells from our viewpoint, 
but from the viewpoint of the departed. It is 
their holiday we celebrate, and not their in- 
carceration. 

Many think a full enjoyment of the free- 
dom of spirit life cannot be attained until the 



Looking IBeponD tins saiotio 43 

old physical body has begun to resolve into its 
original elements. If this is the case, how un- 
wise to put the body on ice, or even embalm 
it. It is thought these attempts to retard the 
disintegration of the body tend to hold the 
spirit in earth's conditions. Many advanced 
spirits strongly advise the cremation of the 
body. What purports to have been received 
from the over-watching spirit of one whose 
body was speedily separated into the original 
elements by the action of fire is quite interest- 
ing. "We were conscious of no pain. We 
came very suddenly into a blaze of light that 
almost dazed us. We soon became accus- 
tomed to it, and we speak favorably of this 
method of disposing of the abandoned earth 
tabernacle." The welfare of the dead, as well 
as sanitary conditions for the living, seem to 
be promoted by cremation. When we die we 
do not cease to live for a while, and then begin 
to live again. Not at all; we simply enter a 
larger life. The only part of us that even 
knows anything is more alive than ever, for it 
no longer has a body of sickness and disease 
to impede its activity. In death the spirit 
body and the spirit are borne out of the phys- 



44 4£ * t e n D e d Vision or, 

ical body into a purer life. What we used to 
call death is now an open door into a new, im- 
mortal existence, and yet a very natural life. 
Loved faces will bend over us there, familiar 
hand clasps will welcome us, the long departed 
parents will enfold us in their embrace. We 
shall learn to speak the language of heaven 
and revel in our new found companions and 
home ; yet we shall always love the memory of 
the earth, for it was there we learned elemen- 
tal lessons in life. 

NOT DEATH. 

Not death, but life. Thank God that they have risen, 

That He has sent them peace, 
That from the pain and shadow of its prison 

The soul has found release. 

We may not know the glory and the gladness 

That on the spirit shine, 
That bore on earth its agony and sadness 

With patience so divine. 

We only know the weariness is ended, 

That they from pain are free, 
That the pure soul has to its God ascended, 

In joy and liberty. 

Tis ours to prize the nature we inherit, 
Which they have glorified. 



Looking IBeponD tbi* ftOorlD 45 

Nor doubt the power of the immortal spirit 
Since they have lived and died. 

O silent lips ! the lessons you have taught us 

We tell with falling tears : 
O noble life ; what blessing thou hast brought us 

Through all thy weary years ! 

As all unconscious of thy wondrous beauty, 

Thou passeth into light, 
May thy sweet patience fill our hearts, and duty 

Grow holy in our sight. 

— Anon. 



CHAPTER III 

THERE ARE NO DEAD 

The celebrated writer and teacher, Dr. 
Lyman Abbott, once said: "We do not die 
and live again, we simply go on living/' 

In a dream the writer seemed to attend a 
funeral, and was greatly surprised to notice 
that in place of the departed one being in the 
casket, he was more alive than ever. 

There was a huge floral piece in the home, 
made in the form of a staircase. At the top 
of it was a light brighter than the noonday 
sun, having an exquisite heavenly sheen. Look- 
ing at the foot of the stairway, we saw the 
transformed one clothed in a beautiful gar- 
ment. On the face was a peace which passeth 
understanding. In the eyes a hope big with 
possibility. 

With a bounding step they were ascending 
the fragrant way, singing as they went toward 

47 



48 qggtenDet) Vision or, 

the apex. On this ladder of flowers we no- 
ticed a purple streamer of heavy silk floating 
in the breeze. A calm soon pervaded the 
scene; and, as the eyes fell on the ribbon, we 
saw a white hand pointing with index finger 
to an inscription worked in beaten gold let- 
ters, which read: "The Next Step in Life's 
Progression." This, said a voice, is what the 
inhabitants of earth call Death. Waking from 
the dream, I quoted the inspired words of an- 
other, part of which heads this article : "There 
is no Death — there are no Dead." 

As we have been taught to regard transition 
as death, we will employ the term here ; but de- 
sire the reader to ever remember it is a mis- 
nomer. "How are the dead raised up?" and 
"With what body do they come?" are two mo- 
mentous questions propounded in the first cen- 
tury of the Christian era by a man of great 
intellectual development and rich spiritual ex- 
perience. If we are able to give a wise an- 
swer to them, you may be able to see why the 
dead are not dead. May the fountain of your 
tears be dried, and the wounded heart healed 
as you peruse these pages. 

In our day and age vast numbers of reli- 



Looking IBeponD tins Wioiin 49 

gionists, thousands of psychologists, and hun- 
dreds of scientists, are undertaking to answer 
these queries; so let us feel we are in good 
company. That truth has recently been re- 
vealed along these lines, there need not be the 
shadow of a doubt. Life has a different mean- 
ing, now that the key to it, here and hereafter, 
is found. 

People have thought that Life is a short line 
which starts at the cradle and ends at the 
grave. The great "Over-Soul" never made a 
straight line in Nature; and man is a product 
of Nature. "The Infinite Intelligence" deals 
with curves and circles. Eternity has no be- 
ginning and no end ; hence the circle is a good 
object lesson of it. Since we are to have an 
Eternity in the future, we must have had one 
in the past ; and we are in Eternity now. Our 
life will never end, because it never had a be- 
ginning. The fact that we may not remember 
the Eternity past does not signify that life 
began with physical birth. We do not re- 
member our first day, or year, in this expres- 
sion of life; nevertheless it was a part of our 
history. A page from the book of our past 
Eternity. 



50 dtenHed $i$i on or, 

The soulical life changes, and seems to start 
and finish. Real life does neither. The spir- 
itual life never knows Babyhood, Old Age, or 
what is called Death. A slight knowledge of 
this part of ourselves helps us to find an an- 
swer to the first question asked by the Tent- 
Maker: "How are the dead raised up?" Not 
by virtue of accepting any particular creed or 
dogma; not by being inducted into any 
church; not by believing any book. People 
who have never heard of Church, Bible, or 
Christianity have been raised, and are being 
raised, as well as those who have been faithful 
to forms of religion with which we are fa- 
miliar. 

The dead are raised up by virtue of the 
eternal spiritual life inherent in each individ- 
ual — the Divinity within. The Deity within, 
the Eternity within, makes it obligatory for 
all the dead to be raised up. There is no such 
thing as "conditional immortality.' 5 By virtue 
of our natures it is compulsory. "There is a 
natural body, and there is a spiritual body." 
No matter in which we may function, life lives 
on forever. Granting that the above state- 
ments are true, one naturally asks: "When 



Looking ISeponD this MJorlD 51 

are the dead raised up?" The materialists 
say: "Never." The theologians of many- 
schools say: "On the Day of Judgment." 
They evidently think it will be a day of 
twenty-four hours; and that the graves will 
open, and the same old bodies come forth. 

A minority of Bible students look for a 
"Double Judgment Day" — covering a period 
of one thousand years. The good to come up, 
first, in the "Judgment of Reward"; and the 
bad to come to the "Judgment of Condemna- 
tion," at the end of the thousand years. The- 
ologians do not always teach the truth ; and the 
above is not the truth. The teacher may mean 
well ; but his doctrines are colored by the The- 
ological Seminary where he prepared for the 
ministry. 

The birth of the spiritual body takes place 
when death claims the physical body. That is 
the New Birth explained to Nicodemus by 
Jesus. All of us came into the world, one by 
one. There was no universal birthday for the 
physical race. There will be no universal 
birthday for the spiritual race. Every time 
the clock ticks some liberated spirit leaves be- 
hind a dead body — that body never to be worn 



52 <&zttntizt} $ f 01 on or, 

again, any more than a discarded suit of 
clothes. 

Many of our loved ones have already ex- 
perienced the joys of Resurrection. Some glad 
day, not far distant, we shall leave the en- 
velope of mortality, to enter into the next 
grade of life's school. What a comforting 
thought that no individual is imprisoned in 
the grave, in purgatory, or in perdition. The 
only bondage we have is while in the flesh. 
After earth's dream, we (and those whom we 
love) will be more free than the eagles in the 
upper air ; and nothing can keep us from soar- 
ing into the Realms of Light, Life, and Love. 
Evolution, of the highest unfoldment, is our 
divine and eternal right. 

Now we take up the last question: "With 
what body do they come?" When correctly 
answered this gives us an understanding of 
Futurity, which makes a wonderful rift in the 
cloud of Death; and lets in spiritual effulg- 
ence we never saw before. "Shall we know 
each other there?" is asked at many deathbeds 
and open graves. Yes, we shall know as we 
are known. We begin life in our next les- 
sons exactly where we leave off here. We shall 



Looking TSeponO tins ftOorlD 53 

begin there with a spiritual body — such as we 
earn here, by the development of personal 
character. 

No mortal has ever seen a spirit. We may, 
at times, see a body through which the spirit 
manifests, for purposes of identification. Our 
departed relatives and friends may, under cer- 
tain circumstances, show themselves to us ; but 
what they show is not their real spirit or their 
heavenly body. Back of the rough chestnut 
burr is a finer body, we call the shell ; back of 
that the chestnut. The mortal body of man- 
kind is like the chestnut burr; the spiritual 
body like the inner shell; and the spirit like 
the chestnut. Death is the frost which knocks 
off the physical burr ; and the inner body, with 
its covering of finer material, is taken into a 
spiritual environment, unseen by us — unless, 
perchance, we are able to see with the eye of 
the soul. That inner covering of the real per- 
sonality is changed "From glory to glory" all 
the time the real life is hidden. This does not 
mean our friends are never to be seen who 
have passed the Great Divide. They may be 
seen even while we tabernacle in the flesh ; but 
they are "seen through a glass darkly" — even 



54 CstentieD IH01 on ot, 

though "face to face," that is, in a temporary 
spiritual body. 

Moses and Elias were seen and known on 
the "Mount of Transfiguration." They, it 
must be remembered, were seen and known 
simply because they temporarily materialized 
bodies for identification. These bodies were 
dematerialized — directly the conference ad- 
journed on Mount Tabor. 

Our friends who have passed through the 
doorway of Death left their worn-out bodies 
in the grip of the iron laws of Nature. By 
the power of Divinity, within, they function 
in spiritual bodies, in spirit spheres. Should 
they desire to manifest on earth, they will 
build up a temporary body in the likeness of 
the one known on earth — as did Moses and 
Elias; and, after the visitation, they will dis- 
tribute these particles back into the ether. As 
a child knows how to build various things with 
his blocks, and tear them down without loss, so 
our kindred and friends are able to build up 
and tear down spiritual bodies for means of 
identification. Nothing is lost by this process. 
Hence, one comes as a baby, to one who knew 
him in babyhood; and as a man to those who 



Looking IBeponD tins COotlD 55 

knew him in manhood ; and as an aged one to 
those who knew him in the ripeness of years. 
Nothing lost in the gathering or distributing 
of these bodies — the spirit being hidden all the 
time behind the astral body. 

"With what body do they come?" With 
any body necessary to show the continuity of 
life; and the possibility, under certain circum- 
stances, of coming in rapport with the deso- 
late children of earth. 



HERE AND THERE. 

Here is the sorrow, the sighing, 
Here are the clouds and the night ; 

Here is the sickness, the dying, — 
There are the life and the light. 

Here is the fading, the wasting, 
The foe that so watchfully waits ; 

There are the hills everlasting, 
The city with beautiful gates. 

Here are the locks growing hoary, 
The glass with the vanishing sands ; 

There are the crown and the glory, 
The house that is made not with hands. 



56 attended Vision or, 

Here is the longing, the vision, 
The hopes that so swiftly remove; 

There is the blessed fruition, 

The feast, and the fullness of love. 

Here are the heart-strings a-tremble, 
And here is the chastening rod; 

There is the song and the cymbal, 
And there is our Angel abode. 

— Alice Cary. 



Looking IBeponD tijis WLqiIH 57 



CHAPTER IV 

DO SPIRITS SUFFER WHEN THEY SEE US IN 
SORROW? 

Many think the pains of earth must bring 
pangs of suffering to those on the other side 
of life; and if so, the spirits of our friends 
cannot be at rest. Let us see. Is ignorance 
necessary to rest ? Then wisdom must be any- 
thing but desirable. The child who comes into 
life, not by knowledge, or intent, knows noth- 
ing of the travail of its mother. Is it, there- 
fore, more happy than its mother? Pain may 
be a blessing in disguise. But for pain the 
child would not be born; but for pain the 
pneumonia patient could not clear the lungs; 
but for pain the eaglet would not learn to fly ; 
but for pain the body would not learn to die. 
To us, but "children crying in the night," we 
look upon suffering as a curse. The poised 
soul is that one who can say from the heart: 



58 <E*tenDeO Vision or, 

"All things work together for good." The 
illuminated soul sings: 

'Tain's furnace-heat within me quivers; 

God's breath upon the flame doth blow ; 
And all my heart in anguish shivers 

And trembles at the fiery glow. 

He kindles for my profit, purely, 
Affliction's, glowing, fiery brand; 

For all the heavy blows are surely, 
Inflicted by a Master hand. 

And so I whisper, as He will, 
And in the hottest fire, hold still." 

Grant that one may be gauged to pain and 
sorrow here. "Do spirits suffer when they see 
us in sorrow?" At times they seem to be so 
immune we are tempted to cry out, like Solo- 
mon: "The dead know not anything. Their 
love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now 
perished; neither have they any more a por- 
tion forever in anything that is done under the 
sun." 

At other times, we want them to know, and 
in agony inquire — 

"Do loved ones care when my heart is pained 
Too deeply for mirth and song; 



Looking IBeponD tW Wiotin 59 

As the burdens press, and the cares distress, 
And the way grows weary and long? 

Do loved ones care when my path is dark 

With a ghostly dread and fear? 
As the daylight fades, into dark night shades, 

Do they care enough to be near ? 

Do loved ones care when IVe tried and failed 

To resist some temptation strong; 
When for my deep grief, there is no relief, 

Tho' my tears flow all the night long? 

Do loved ones care when IVe said "Good bye" 

To the dearest on earth to me, 
And my sad heart aches, till it nearly breaks, 

Is it naught to them? Do they see? 

O yes, they care, they say they care, 

Their heart is touched with earth's grief; 

When the days are weary, the long nights dreary, 
They whisper — "Yes, we care." 

Call to mind a night scene in the Bible. The 
disciples were "toiling in rowing." For a time 
it seemed as though the elements were against 
them. Even Jesus did not seem to care. Their 
eyes were inflamed from the strain of looking 
for the other shore; yet Jesus did not offer to 
"stand watch." Their muscles were tired from 
long rowing ; yet Jesus did not offer to pull an 
oar. Their hearts were heavy; yet Jesus had 



60 (Bzttntjtn Vision or, 

no word of encouragement. They feared "a 
grave in the angry deep"; yet Jesus slept on. 
At last in hopeless desperation, one left the 
oar, and cried in tones not sweet with resigna- 
tion: "Carest Thou not that we perish?" 
Knowing that they had come to the end of 
their nerve force, knowing muscular endur- 
ance was waning, knowing hope was almost 
dead, He arose and talked to the waves as a 
father would speak to a refractory child: 
"Peace, be still." The lake was changed. The 
disciples were changed; but Jesus had so 
much of the tranquil in himself He could 
sleep, until the fishermen wanted Him bad 
enough to leave the oar, and call the call which 
meant: "We have come to the end of our- 
selves, now do what You can." 

Some of the storms of life may nearly ex- 
haust us, and at last we cry into the heavens, 
"Carest thou not that we perish?" Some- 
how help comes from somewhere, while the 
comforting promise rushes into the mind: "He 
shall give his angels charge over thee, to de- 
liver thee, lest thou dash thy foot against a 
stone." Infinite wisdom has decreed that not 
all storms are to be abated; sometimes it is 



Looking IBcponD tfu'0 MJotlO 61 

deliverance from the storm, at other times it 
is deliverance in the storm. When delivered 
from it, we often sing: 

"Loved ones the tempest is over, 

The elements sweetly rest; 
The sun in a calm lake is mirrored, 

And Heaven's within my breast." 

When these great calms come and we enter 
upon life's duties afresh, how frequently we 
neglect to thank the delivering Angel, as the 
Disciples forgot to thank Jesus. Make a 
practice, after you retire, of counting the 
blessings of the day, keep tally on your fin- 
gers; send out your thanksgiving, and fall 
asleep. Did Jesus suffer when the storm was 
on? Not as Peter did. Do our heavenly 
friends suffer when we are passing through 
frightful storms? Not as we do. Learn a 
heavenly lesson from a domestic scene. You 
represent the baby, and your arisen loved one, 
the mother. A mother sits talking with a 
friend, and laughs as the conversation in- 
creases in interest. A thud is heard like the 
fall of a heavy object — sobs and cries follow, 
and the mother turns to see that the baby who 
was learning to walk has had a terrible tumble. 



62 OBstenDeD IN 01 on or, 

Blood and tears were running down, and the 
little one was half scared to death. The baby- 
is gathered in maternal arms, the disheveled 
hair is pushed back, the face is washed, the 
mother goes on laughing and talking with her 
friend. Is the mother-heart cruel or cold? O, 
No! Does she suffer with baby? Yes, but not 
like a baby. Hers is a suffering of maturity. 
She battled with gravitation, and that some- 
thing within which said: "I want to walk" 
overcame every obstacle. Mother knows that 
baby's tears, fears, and falls, are a part of the 
curriculum which prepare it for the upright 
life of the years ahead, when the laws of grav- 
itation are mastered. 

Our friends in spirit may be near when we 
say: "No man cares for my soul," and "Life 
is not worth the living"; but they do not sor- 
row like those who are in the gale of life — 
rather like those who have "Dropped the an- 
chor, and furled the sail." Having been 
through what we are passing through, they 
may, at times, even smile and sing, w T hen they 
notice us in what we think to be the most se- 
vere trials. They may take us up and kiss 
away our tears, when we are too earth-fright- 



Hooking 15eponD tin's ftftorlD 63 

ened. We often feel no loving arms and are 
not aware of any affection, because they know 
the worst things in our lives are essential for 
the expansion and sturdy life which is to fol- 
low. The acorn might think the heavy rain 
would wash it out of the soil, the sun scorch it 
to death, the dampness rot it in the earth, the 
wind break down the little trunk. Stand un- 
der the mighty oak now, and see it clap its 
leaves in the high wind, and seem to say: "All 
these adverse things made me strike my roots 
downward, and spread my branches outward; 
and I am strong because I have endured." 

The loved ones look down upon us as much 
as the great oak might look upon the acorn; 
and they say: "If they could see the oak in 
the acorn, the golden harvest in the kernel, 
they would not be timid and afraid ; and they 
would know that we, seeing the end from the 
beginning, do not sorrow to our hurt, any 
more than the marble did when cut after cut 
was made in it, and the hammer sounds were 
quick and loud. An angel was brought out of 
the stone by the rough and cutting blows of 
hammer and chisel ; and we, your spirit friends, 
see that you will come out of suffering, having 



64 (BztzntJtti $i$i on or, 

lost only the rough edges, and angelhood will 
be yours, — so why should our sorrow be like 
your sorrow?" Hear just now from the other 
side of the Great Divide; your friends say in 
tones as soulful as the Oboe: "These light af- 
flictions which are but for a moment, will work 
out for you a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory. 9 ' Because of this, dear soul, 
move out of the rough experience of the fish- 
ermen on the lake to the fourth chapter of 
Hebrews, which is the "Rest Chapter" of the 
Bible, and in the nine rests mentioned see 
yourself and your departed. One rest men- 
tioned is a "Rest for the Present Day." The 
experiences of life are like the ocean, some- 
times rough, and sometimes calm. There 
seems to be very little rest, even in sleep, for 
the energies of brain and brawn seem to work 
on during the unconscious as well as the con- 
scious moments. Learn to rest here; it will 
please your angel friends. Another rest men- 
tioned is "Rest in Labor." This can only be 
done when we have found ourselves, and 
found our work. Friction ceases when we are 
in our own environment. Learn to rest in 
labor; it will please your angel friends. The 



Looking IStpontt tins 82lotID 65 

next rest mentioned is "Rest from Labor." A 
rest from constructive effort should be ours at 
times. Stop piling up imaginary profits for 
years which will never come. Stop selecting 
quarters in the "Poorhouse." Stop creating 
physical ailments for next month. Stop build- 
ing "Castles in the Air." Stop piling up 
mountains you will never need to cross. Stop 
constructing bridges your feet will never press. 
You have burned out too much of youth al- 
ready in these ways. Learn to rest from la- 
bor; it will please your angel friends, and be 
better for yourself. 

We then read of a "Rest in the Divine." 
"The Kingdom of God is within"— find the 
Divine in the human. Sorrows will fly away, 
your spirit friends will joy with you in the 
discovery. The last is "Rest in Heaven." 
There we shall be touched with the infirmities 
of those left behind; but if we have learned 
the earlier lessons in rest, we will know how to 
look earthward, and fold the dear ones to our- 
selves, when they seem likely to perish; and 
kiss them into a new hope, without losing a joy 
of the celestial state ; perchance even finding a 
smile and a song when the frightened ones 



66 <E*tenHeti Vision or, 

would climb into our arms. If we want to 
help our dear ones to advance, if we want to 
make the most of the lessons of earth, let us 
bear the sorrows so well we may rest, even 
when the winds are filled with destruction, and 
we are in storms — "toiling in rowing." 

Finally, do not have any anxious care about 
the suffering of those who have passed on, 
providing nothing is being consciously done 
by you to cause the pain. If there be such, 
put that out of your life, on their account, and 
your own; but when you think of a sorrow 
which comes unsought, remember yours is the 
grief and theirs is the deliverance. They look 
on you as you will be after the Master work- 
man has you ready for inspection. You learn 
to look upon them as part of the great com- 
pany who are saying: "Former things are 
passed away." "No more death" — "neither 
sorrow nor crying," "neither any more pain"; 
for we are at home where all tears are wiped 
away. 

I'M RETURNING, NOT DEPARTING. 

I'm returning, not departing; 
My steps are homeward bound; 



Hooking OSeponD this fflloriD 67 

I quit the land of strangers, 
For a home on native ground. 

I am rising, and not sitting — 

This is not night, but day; 
Not in darkness, but in sunshine, 

Like a star I fade away. 

All is well with me forever; 

I do not fear to go; 
My tide is but beginning 

Its bright eternal flow. 

I am leaving only shadows, 

For the true, and fair and good; 

I must not, cannot linger; 
I would not if I could. 

This is not death's dark portal; 

'Tis life's golden gate to me; 
Link after link is broken, 

And I, at last, am free. 

I am going to the angels, 

I am going to my friends ; 
I know the hand that beckons, 

I see the form that bends. 

Why grieve me with your weeping? 

Your tears are all in vain ; 
An hour's farewell, beloved, 

And we shall meet again. 

Angels, thou wilt receive me, 

And welcome me above. 
This sunlight which now fills me, 

Is thine own smile of love. 



CHAPTER V 

HEAVEN A CITY 

Cain has ever been associated with homicide, 
and the impressions cut deep in the convolu- 
tions of the modern brain are that because of 
this he must have been altogether bad. Were 
he living now, the newspapers would con- 
demn him before trial, and if he did not have 
parents with ample means he would be claimed 
by the scaffold or the electric chair. 

No book is altogether good, no matter how 
holy its writer may be. No book is altogether 
bad, no matter how vile its author. No life 
is perfect, no matter what perfection may be 
claimed. No man is altogether bad, though 
condemned by the people to an ignominious 
death. Had Cain paid the death penalty for 
his crime, the world would never have known 
of the goodness of his offspring. Brand the 
bad man if you will, but never destroy him. 

69 



70 4£*tenDeD Vision or, 

Remember the instruction of spirit in the cele- 
brated Cain case. Nature has never produced 
a man who was in every respect a degenerate. 
The fact that Cain had a good son, and that 
children inherit from their forebears teaches us 
that there was a hidden spark of real manhood 
in him. "Enoch," the offspring of "the man 
of the marked forehead," and the unknown 
woman of "Nod," walked with God, and was 
not, for God took him. He was the first re- 
corded person to build a city. Unnumbered 
persons would like to salute him for such origi- 
nal initiative, and honor the man, who under 
the stigma of parentage was not only able to 
bless the earth, but while doing so walk in 
sweet companionship with spirit, until he 
walked out of earth's first city into the City 
which hath foundations, whose builder and 
maker is God. From his day to ours greater 
and greater cities have sprung up. When we 
look upon the skyscrapers of New York, the 
"Tower of Babel" seems like a mole hill along- 
side of these gigantic mountains of granite and 
marble, and we wonder if the city of the great 
white way can possibly be greater than our 
metropolis. O yes, the city idea follows in the 



Looking IBegonD tins ftftorio 71 

wake of human progress, and we catch up the 
same idea from the materialized Jesus, as he 
talks to the isolated John on the Isle of Pat- 
mos, of "The Holy City," made ready as a 
"bride adorned for her husband." 

This coming city is to be beautifully gated, 
having on the east three portals ; on the north, 
three; on the south, three, and on the west, 
three. Ample room with inviting entrance for 
those of the north, south, east, and west. All 
people may go in and out, and find pleasure. 
The many figures used to describe this place, 
where the gates are not shut by day, and there 
is no night, are word pictures to spread before 
our undeveloped intellects a slight conception 
of the land of the leal. The exoteric meaning 
is deeper and richer than any figure of earth 
can disclose. The streets of gold may suggest 
that the things under our feet over there are 
superior to the goal of our ambition here. 
Heaven is a city ; when we write that we mean 
all the word implies, still it is much more than 
a city. The phrase is comprehensive, yet not 
all inclusive. 

Every autumn multitudes, vast multitudes, 
leave the rural districts to climb the ladder of 



72 (Btttntitlj Vision or, 

fame, or be caught in the whirlpool of the sub- 
merged populace. Many prefer a crust in a 
tenement where they can elbow the great 
crowds in a city than plenty in the country. 
In palaces or flats they live out the brief span 
of human life, choosing the din and dirt of the 
city to any other existence. These persons 
when they pass to the unknown world, as well 
as many who live in affluence and refinement, 
would not be content to live apart from civic 
conditions. 

The city life will be carried on to the higher 
plane for those who crave it and could not be 
happy without it. There is a psychological 
effect from a crowd which is missed by those 
who are absent from the great centres, even 
for a short time. This may not be felt or un- 
derstood by those who seek secluded quarters. 
The magnetic emanations of the masses make 
a reservoir of supply, upon which multitudi- 
nous people unconsciously live. As the aged 
draws from the young, the diseased from the 
healthful, the weak from the strong, the pessi- 
mistic from the optimistic, so in the city life, 
here and hereafter, there is an exemplification 
of supply and demand. Many would utterly] 



Hooking TBeponD tfu'0 MJotlD 73 

perish like fish out of water without this ocean 
of animal magnetism, from which they draw 
daily. An engine speeding at the rate of 
forty-five miles an hour drinks up its supply 
of water from the trench below, without slow- 
ing down or stopping. Men and women pick 
up energy as they pass the masses, and only 
once in a while does one ask: "Who touched 
me?" This question being asked because they 
perceive that virtue has gone out of them. In 
the hereafter, as well as the here, the sapping 
and the appropriating will continue. Many 
who draw the perennial supply here do not 
know it, and never stop to render thanks, yet 
they feel they receive something from the 
crowd which they miss when away from it. 
Charged and surcharged with this water of 
life, this heavenly virtue, this magnetic force, 
this occult power, the stalwart sons of God 
will be psychic batteries in the eternal city, to 
supply the weaklings of earth who felt the 
city pull, and could not reach the city, as well 
as those who received benefits from residence 
in the city. 

In this city which needs not the sun to shine 
by day, but is illuminated by the sparks of 



74 (BzttntJtn Vision ot. 

Divinity, the things which claim our best 
thoughts and attention here will be continued 
only on a much higher plane. The only things 
left out will be graves, and those things which 
have in them the trend of death. Things of 
life, beauty, and helpfulness will await us in 
the city which lieth four square. "As order is 
said to be heaven's first law, we may expect a 
city well laid out, and perfectly kept. Trees, 
lawns, fountains, birds, everything which goes 
to make up an ideal city will be a part of our 
environment. Magnificent works of art will 
call for admiration on every hand. The great 
sculptors will work angels out of blocks of 
marble which will be correct reproductions of 
these heavenly individuals. Artists with brush 
and canvas will display greater art, and all 
of their works will be true to life. Antiquity 
will be unveiled, so we shall be able to unroll 
the scroll of the past, and understand perfect- 
ly the hidden mysteries. 

Futurity will be spread out before us as the 
music of a Caruso is produced in the rubber 
disc of the phonograph, and we shall see the 
things to which we all are coming. The great 
orchestras of earth and air with their great 



Looking OBeponD tftfs motID 75 

conductors and composers will be at their best, 
so our spirits will be thrilled with magnetic 
soul vibrations. The parks will be open for 
relaxation, social communion, and innocent 
amusement. Grand operas will be sung by 
the greatest vocalists of the universe, and we 
shall understand the language of birds and 
the language of music. Dramatic art will be 
in evidence, depicting scenes from earth in 
which we will take an especial interest. These 
great stock companies of the skies will also in- 
terpret spirit conditions for us in the various 
spheres, and show us things to come. Seats of 
learning where we may more fully understand 
ourselves and our relations to all life, animate 
and inanimate, will have such a charming cur- 
riculum that many who are not inclined to be 
students on earth will matriculate. Reforma- 
tory institutions where the undeveloped will 
have the weak side of their nature built up, 
without feeling they are criminals, will be one 
of the many centres of wholesome influence. 
Even the students will feel a joy in their 
work, and they will graduate some of the fin- 
est men who have ever taken part in "Class 
Day" or graduating exercises. Spirit Orphan- 



76 (BxttnUth ^10 ion or, 

ages for children who were buds on earth will 
be mothered and fathered by instructors who 
have outgrown dogmatic theology; and these 
boys and girls will not have their individuality 
curbed by care-takers, creeds, or uniforms. 
Each life will be individualized, and all the 
children will remind us of artesian wells and 
musical cadenzas. Temples of soul-culture 
where truth will be spoken and sung without 
money and without price, having back of the 
instruction no ulterior motive, will be main- 
tained for such as crave psychic knowledge. 
Colleges of medicine and surgery to perfect 
the physician of earth by illumination, helping 
them to diagnose disease, prescribe remedies, 
and operate when necessary, will invite the 
men of like profession who go into the city 
where tears are wiped away, where there is no 
more sickness or pain, and all things are made 
new. Studies in biography will be a fascinat- 
ing feature of the city, where nothing hurts or 
destroys. Few persons are understood here, 
even the men who write the biography of the 
world color it to suit circumstances. Here- 
after there will be no room for carping, for 
"We shall know as we are known." Now we 



Looking 15eponD tins SBorlD 77 

look through a glass darkly, but then face to 
face. 

Transportation facilities will be as far 
ahead of our age as the fast express train is 
ahead of the ship of the desert. We shall be 
able to visit earth and be about the persons 
and places we love. We shall travel through 
heaven, taking pleasant holidays for our jour- 
neys. We shall pay our respects to other in- 
habited worlds. Ideal homes will be set up as 
sample habitations for those who did not know 
how to make earth homes inviting. Many 
have gone to clubs, saloons, and the like, be- 
cause the home friends and the home were 
not attractive. Angels will teach the un- 
taught how to build more stately mansions. 
Oliver Wendell Holmes and others will show 
them how to 

"Build thee more stately mansions, oh, my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll. 
Leave thy low vaulted past, 
Let each new temple nobler than the last, 
Unite thee to heaven, with its houses more vast, 

'Till thou at length art free. 

Leaving the outgrown homes by life's unresting sea." 

City of reunion. This city will mean more 
to us because we shall sit down with mother, 



78 (Bxtznttttj Vision or, 

father, brother, and sister, relatives and 
friends to enjoy life for the first time, and 
rise up to work without friction, for our good 
and the good of others* Out of earth's best 
city, away from the city of the dead, we shall 
live in the city of eternal deliverance. 

Burst, ye emerald gates, and bring to my raptured 

vision, 
All the ecstatic joys that spring round the bright Ely- 

sian. 



ABSENCE. 

What shall I do with all the days and hours 
That must be counted ere I see thy face ? 

How shall I charm the interval that lowers 

Between this time and that sweet time of grace ? 

I'll tell thee : for thy sake, I will lay hold 
Of all good aims, and consecrate to thee, 

In worthy deeds, each moment that is told 
While thou, beloved one, art far from me. 

For thee, I will arouse my thoughts to try 

All heavenward flights, all high and holy strains ; 

For thy dear sake, I will walk patiently 

Through these long hours, nor call their minutes 
pains. 



Looking IBeponD tin's MJorid 79 

I will this weary blank of absence make 
A noble task-time, and will therein strive 

To follow excellence, and to o'ertake 

More good than I have won since yet I live. 

So may this darksome time build up in me 
A thousand graces which shall thus be thine ; 

So may my love and longing hallowed be, 
And thy dear thought an influence divine. 

— Frances Anne Kemble. 



CHAPTER VI 

FBIENDS IN THE GREAT BEYOND 

The desire for friendship is strong in every 
human life. We crave companionship; espe- 
cially the kind that sticketh closer than a 
brother. We want the variety which says, and 
means what it says: "Though all men forsake 
thee, yet will not I." We do not care for the 
friends (?) who would sell us out for thirty 
pieces of silver; but rather those who, if nec- 
essary for our good, would prove their friend- 
ship by their beneficence. We want a friend 
like the violin player in the King's orchestra. 
His Majesty had said: "Expenses must be 
cut down, and the orchestra must go." As he 
sat in the Royal Box, at the farewell concert, 
listening to the last number on the program, 
one musician after another arose and went out, 
until there was but one man left. Shekels or 
no shekels, he would make music for the King; 

81 



82 4£*tenDeD vision or, 

so he played the most weird and soulful 
strains, until the ruler's eyes were filled with 
tears, and he called out: "Give me back my 
orchestra." One loyal subject had melted the 
heart of the King, benefitted the whole or- 
chestra, and helped himself. That is what the 
world is hungry for — the man who will turn 
defeat into victory, by proving his friendship. 
Charles Kingsley was once asked for the 
secret of his rare sympathy and splendid im- 
agination. After bowing his head in retro- 
spective thought, he looked up and answered: 
"I had a friend." 

"In the sky that is above us, 

Borne upon the wings of light, 
Many beings live, who love us; 

Come with blessings that are right. 

In the night of darkest sorrow, 

When our hearts are prone to mourn, 

They prepare for us the morrow, 
Or the day that is to dawn. 

We are entering but the portals 

Of the life that is to be; 
They are walking the immortal 

Pathway of eternity. 

We are following their footsteps, 
Ever walking as they guide, 



Looking !3eponD tins WLoilU 83 

In the cloud and in the sunlight, 
Friends are ever near our side. 

Cross or crown may be before us, 

Yet we press on undismayed; 
Friends and angels bright are o'er us, 

We can never be afraid. 

Clasp their hands in hours of sorrow, 
Trust their love in day or night; 

Hope shall gild the coming morrow, 
Friends will make the future bright. ,, 

We want to impart our thought unto oth- 
ers. We desire to unfold every plan to hearts 
which feel and remember. We like to unbur- 
den our weaknesses to one who will not quench 
the smoking flax, or break the bruised reed. 
By dividing one's joys with a friend we aug- 
ment them; by seeking the divinity in others, 
we discover it in ourselves. The sky is never 
so clear, the stars never so bright, the streams 
never such "laughing waters," the world never 
so gracious as when we are filled with the 
knowledge that some one loves us. Being in 
soul harmony with one, we do not desire to be 
out of tune with any. Our friends may not be 
half as talented and lovely as we picture them ; 
but the mere fact that we so regard them gives 
them an inspiration to measure up to our 



84 CstettDeD Vision or, 

thought of them. Should the friend pass be- 
hind the thin veil while this condition of ex- 
altation obtains, the conception is indelibly 
recorded on our soul, as the last earthly view 
is said to be photographed upon the retina of 
the eye. The memory of a sweet companion- 
ship once fully proved, when snapped by fate 
at its supremest moment, can never have a 
burial in the heart left desolate. All other 
troubles seem commonplace beside this, and 
memory of that ideal condition will sing in the 
heart a perpetual love-song. The memory of 
a great love is here enshrined in diamond clus- 
ters; and, although it brings with it an unut- 
terable sadness, it also imparts an unspeakable 
benediction. Such an ideal friendship — 
though faded — and having slipped from our 
grasp, like a shadow which seems real but is 
only a reflection, is of the highest good in our 
lives. If they departed before the sordid 
breath of selfishness touched their soul, their 
memory is like the aroma of a sweet flower. 
The constant dwelling on sweet, sad recollec- 
tions, on the rare friendship of the one that 
has gone, tends to crystallize the friendship of 
other days in the heart of him who meditates 



Looking 15eponD tW ftOotlD 85 

upon it. You have had such friends; and 
though the years have brought you in connec- 
tion with thousands, the ones who got into 
your inner life have remained there, even 
though they may have gone out of the physi- 
cal body. 

When a boy of seventeen summers, I had 
a friend. He sat by me in school, and I used 
to wonder if he would be a minister; for he 
made paper men and immersed them in the 
ink well, and observed the communion by us- 
ing ink in place of wine. He was in old "No. 
15 Sunday School class" where we learned a 
little of the Bible, and had a great deal of 
fun. He went with me to the choir gallery; 
though his voice was very unmusical. He 
would claim to sing bass by note; his word 
hymnal usually held over the tune book; so 
he did not even see the music we were 
rendering. He took long walks with me 
in the Sunday evenings' after glow; so well 
did we understand each other, that not a 
word would be said for miles; all the time 
we were drinking, each the heart life of 
the other. Typhoid fever took hold upon 
him, and his young career terminated on 



86 <ZE*tenOeO Vision or, 

earth. When his life was being breathed 
out, he was given a remarkable gift of song. 
He sang in tones almost divine, "Go Bury 
Thy Sorrow," followed by "Gathering Home- 
ward from Every Land/' Then, raising him- 
self on his elbow, he exclaimed: "I will arise 
and go to my Father." I watched with his 
remains — the rain fell in torrents; the wind 
blew with terrible force; apples fell like hail- 
stones, until it seemed as though nature was 
mad. My soul also passed through a storm, 
from which it has never fully emerged. Again 
and again I have stood by his tombstone and 
sung the hymns he last voiced. I have talked 
to him as a friend talks to a friend, but no 
answer has come back to my aching heart. 
That loss presses my spirit still. There is no 
photograph of him on earth, and I cannot re- 
call his looks ; still I feel the love which bound 
us together has never been loosed, and I long 
for the clasp of his hand. Since then I have 
seen many pass out, who were dear to me, 
among them my closest relatives, and the grief 
has been soul-rending; but somehow that first 
affliction, perhaps because it was the first, cut 
so deep that the wound has never healed. We 



Looking IBegonD tbin ftOorlD 87 

have said to those who have passed on since 
his day: "You will see him before I do; give 
him my love." Your first sorrow, like my 
own, will yet be turned into gladness, and 
every winter have its spring. 



THE MESSAGE TO THE DEAD. 

Thou'rt passing hence, my brother ! 

O my earliest friend, farewell! 
Thou'rt leaving me, without thy voice, 

In a lonely home to dwell; 
And from the hills, and from the hearth, 

And from the household tree, 
With thee departs the lingering mirth, 

That brightness goes with thee. 

But thou, my friend, my brother! 

Thou'rt speeding to the shore 
Where the dirge-like tone of parting words 

Shall smite the soul no more ! 
And thou wilt see our holy dead, 

The lost on earth and main: 
Into the sheaf of kindred hearts 

Thou wilt be bound again. 



88 (Bzttntttti Vision or 

Tell, then, our friend of boyhood 

That yet his name is heard 
On the blue mountains, whence his youth 

Pass'd like a swift, bright bird. 
The light of his exalting brow, 

The vision of his glee, 
Are on me still — Oh! still I trust 

That smile again to see. 

And tell our fair young sister, 

The rose cut down in spring, 
That yet my gushing soul is filled 

With lays she loved to sing. 
Her soft deep eyes look through my dreams, 

Tender and sadly sweet; — 
Tell her my heart within me burns 

Once more that gaze to meet. 

And tell our white-haired father, 

That in the paths he trod, 
The child he loved the last on earth, 

Yet walks and worships God. 
Say, that his last fond blessing yet 

Rests on the soul like dew. 
And by its hallowing might I trust 

Once more his face to view. 

And tell our gentle mother, 

That on her grave I pour, 
The sorrows of my spirit forth, 

As on her breast of yore. 
Happy we are for soon, Ah soon, 

Our loved and lost we'll see ! 
O brother, brother! may I dwell, 

Ere long, with them and thee ! 

— Felicia Hemans. 



Looking TBeponD tins MJotlD 89 



MESSAGE FROM SPIRIT LAND. 

Some morn the spirit friends will rap, 
And I no more in doubt shall be; 

But, oh, the joy when I shall hear 
The loving message sent to me. 

Chorus. 
And I shall hear, and understand, 
The message from the spirit land ; 
And I shall hear, and understand, 
My own, my blessed Angel band. 

Some noon the gentle heavenly breeze 
Will fan my brow, and soothe my heart ; 

Ah, then the friends will be so near, 
We never, never more shall part. 

Some eve when fades the golden sun 

Beneath the rosy tinted west, 
The Odic clouds will fill the room, 

And I shall be supremely blest. 

Some night, when all is still as death, 

Ethereal forms will float by me ; 
The continuity of life, 
A proven fact to me will be. 

— G. Tabor Thompson. 



CHAPTER VII 

CELESTIAL ATTENDANTS 

No doubt there are very many orders of 
beings who enjoy life, and behold the glory 
of each other. Our planet is one of the small 
worlds in the vast dome of the universe about 
us; and it would seem that the greater ones 
may be inhabited, as well as the old Earth. 
Perhaps there are human beings far above us, 
and some below us. We may occupy a mid- 
dle place in the scale of Life and Intelligence. 
No matter how high or how low, we are all 
joined together in one great brotherhood. Sci- 
ence has demonstrated the unity of the phys- 
ical system. One law governs the apple that 
falls from the tree; and the suns and planets 
that revolve in the most distant realms of 
space. There must, therefore, be relations 
among all the intelligences of life. Some of 
these may be beyond our comprehension while 

91 



92 CitettDeD $ i$i on or, 

we are on this earth-plane; yet we know that 
all the moral intelligences of the universe are, 
by a mysterious chain, bound together as se- 
curely as the physical universe is bound by the 
law of gravitation. For the want of a better 
name we call these multitudinous personali- 
ties "angels." Whether they once lived in 
human form on earth, or in a material body on 
some other planet, or have always been spir- 
itual beings, they are angels. It is not to be 
supposed that they are all on the same spirit- 
ual plane. Some are more refined and ethe- 
realized than others. They may function in 
classes or ranks coming under the caption of 
"Principalities," "Powers," "Angels," etc. Or 
they may have personal names, like Michael, 
Gabriel, Lucifer, etc.; little matter as far as 
we are concerned in the present expression of 
life. Of this we are assured; an angel is a 
messenger; and the writer of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews says: "Are they not all ministering 
spirits sent forth to minister to the heirs of 
salvation?" How great is the number of them 
we may not tell; yet we may believe that so 
many of them are assigned to each individual 
that no good thing may be lacking. David 



Looking IBeponD tftfe ft&orio 93 

says: "Thousands, thousands ministered unto 
him, and ten thousand times ten thousand 
stood before him"; and again: "The chariots 
of God are twenty thousand, even thousands 
of angels." Jesus said: "Twelve legions of 
angels" were ready to come at his suggestion. 
Seventy-two thousand should be enough to 
protect most any one. Paul said: "Ye are 
come to an innumerable company of angels, 
to the general assembly and church of the 
First Born." 

Could all of the human family know of the 
celestial attendants near them, fear would be 
banished from their life, a peace passing un- 
derstanding would possess them, and joy 
would spring forth like an ever-living foun- 
tain. 

The servant of the prophet was disheart- 
ened in the morning when he saw the enemies 
of Elisha had encompassed Dothan at night, 
and they were in imminent peril. Rushing 
into the presence of the seer, he cried out: 
"Alas! my Master, how shall we do?" The 
answer came: "Fear not; for they that be 
with us are more than they that be with them." 
The spirit eyes of the young man were opened, 



94 <&tttntttn Vision or, 

and he saw; and behold "The mountain was 
full of horses and chariots of fire round about 
Elisha." 

"Angels now are hovering near us, 
Unperceived amidst the throng." 

How often angels, perhaps unseen by us, 
have cheered us in sorrow, ministered comfort 
in woe ; and in earth's darkest hours have been 
"nearer to us than breathing, and closer than 
hands and feet." 

A dear friend of the author's was working 
for a time in an iron mill in western Penn- 
sylvania. Being on "night shift," he was 
obliged to walk home after midnight. The 
road was not lighted, and the three miles 
seemed long. Frequently he would cross a 
railroad bridge over the river, walking on a 
twelve-inch plank. One night when halfway 
across the bridge, he heard a voice by his side 
saying: "Do not take another step; get on 
your hands and knees and creep on the ties to 
the other shore." There was no person on the 
bridge but himself, and no one on either shore 
calling to him. Instinctively he did as he was 
commanded, and reached the shore in safety. 



Looking 15tyontj thi* COorlD 95 

Early the next morning he went down to the 
bridge and found a plank was missing. Had 
he taken another step that eventful night, he 
would have plunged into the swollen river and 
perished in the maddened waters. Verily here 
is a fulfillment of the promise: "He shall give 
his angels charge over thee to deliver thee, lest 
thou dash thy foot against a stone." 

In the moral affairs of life we need celes- 
tial attendants. Conscience is not a correct 
guide. How frequently we will say: "My con- 
science does, or does not, approve." People 
never think conscience is regulated very large- 
ly by education. Long ago mothers brought 
their children to the River Ganges, threw 
them in its waters, and stood by the banks to 
watch the alligators devour them. Their con- 
science approved of it, because they had been 
falsely educated. Was it right? When moth- 
ers saw their babies crushed to death under the 
car of Juggernaut, they turned away with joy 
— their conscience approving of the rash act. 
Was this practice right? 

Paul said: "I have lived in all good con- 
science until this day," yet he had driven peo- 
ple from city to city, compelled them to bias- 



96 CstenUeD Vision or, 

pheme, and held the clothes of those who 
stoned Stevens to death. There came a time 
when a heavenly messenger joined him on the 
way to Damascus and educated his conscience. 
That which is intuitive in conscience may be 
close to the line of right; but that which is 
under the domain of education is very fre- 
quently wrong. A mother will permit a child 
to play on the floor and do as it pleases until 
it comes near the danger line, when she will 
speak the word of warning. 

In the moral world we seem to be free to 
do as we please ; but if our feet go in the place 
of danger we hear "the voice behind us," say- 
ing: "This is the way, walk ye in it." It is not 
the voice of conscience; it is the voice of our 
angel guide. 

A reformed pick-pocket was asked how he 
had operated with success along old lines. He 
replied: "I went to college and graduated." 
It seems he had studied where the fashions of 
the day were hung on forms. These forms 
had bells attached to them; large bells the 
farthest from the pocket; tiny ones on the 
pockets. When he could lift the skirt, or reach 
the pocket without ringing the smallest bell, 



Looking IBcponD tftf* »>tlD 97 

he was ready for the street. If there was the 
slightest bad movement, he was warned by the 
musical bells. 

We are rubbing up against humanity every 
day. Left to ourselves we would utterly fail. 
As the warning bells hung about the gar- 
ments, so the warning angels are about us. 
We know not of their presence until some- 
thing goes wrong; then the chiming bells of 
angelhood show us where we have made a mis- 
take ; and keep at us until success accompanies 
every legitimate effort. 

These heavenly guests also share in our 
joys. We read of them singing when one is 
born into this life. They manifest an inter- 
est in babyhood, and from that time up to de- 
crepitude the ministry of angels is a ministry 
of joy. In our thought of them we do well 
to remember that some are on low planes ; and 
such we do not need to permit in our aura. 
There comes to one's house desirable and un- 
desirable persons, so try the spirits to see if 
you desire to entertain them. In our city 
home a mirror is secured to the sitting-room 
window, in which people coming toward the 
house or going from it may be reflected. An- 



98 OBstettDeD Vision or, 

other mirror shows who may be standing on 
the porch and pushing the electric bell. These 
are called "Busy-Bodies. " The door is not 
opened to peddlers and other undesirable per- 
sons. We need to have a soul mirror, by 
which to see who approaches; and we need 
wisdom enough to open to the higher forms 
of angels, and keep the door of our mental- 
ity and soul closed to the undeveloped ones. 
John wrote: "Try the spirits; for many false 
spirits have gone forth into the world." Being 
wisely on our guard, we have a companion- 
ship which is helpful, interesting, and enter- 
taining, Without proper care some are 
obsessed, and begin to discover the double or 
triple personality — the "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. 
Hyde" life. These are sad experiences in- 
deed; and all due to the fact that the moral 
"Busy-Body" was not in use. 

Among the celestial attendants who come 
with blessing to our race are the American In- 
dians. They owned this "Land of the Free 
and Home of the Brave." Their battle-axes, 
tomahawks, arrow-heads, etc., lay around the 
place of the old camp-fires; and the "pipe of 
peace" is to be found near the spot where they 



Looking IBeponD tftf* WLotin 99 

started for the "Happy Hunting Ground." 
Their discarded bones lie in the same soil as 
those of our loved ones. They are angels of 
healing and strength, angels of discovery, an- 
gels of playfulness. Let us not drive them 
away from our lives, as we drove them out of 
this land. They come to bless. Not least 
among the innumerable throng which pass up 
and down as they did on Jacob's staircase, are 
our own relatives and friends. Are they an- 
gels? Yea! verily, messengers of love, who 
come to us as Moses and Elias came to visit 
Jesus, Peter, James, and John. We should 
have tabernacles for them in our hearts and 
homes, where they may find us secluded from 
the world, and can talk to us about the things 
which are to be. When the last great change 
comes we will sing in our hearts: "Angels 
ever bright and fair! Take, oh! take me to 
thy care." 

In the hour of birth and on to our second 
birth, there is no moment when we are not 
hedged about by celestial attendants. 



ioo CstettBeD $ i$i on or, 



EVENING BRINGS US HOME. 

Upon the hills the wind is sharp and cold ; 
The sweet young grasses wither on the wold ; 
And we, O friends, have wandered from the fold, 
But evening brings us home. 

Among the mists we stumble, and the rocks 
Where the brown lichten whitens, and the fox 
Watches the straggler from the scattered flocks ; 
But evening brings us home. 

The sharp thorns prick us, and our tender feet 
Are cut and bleeding, and the lambs repeat 
Their pitiful complaints; Oh, rest is sweet 
When evening brings us home. 

We have been wounded by the hunter's darts; 
Our eyes are very heavy, and our hearts 
Search for thy coming; when the light departs, 
As evening brings us home. 

The darkness gathers. Through the gloom no star 
Rises to guide us. We have wandered far. 
Without thy lamp we know not where we are ; 
At evening bring us home. 

The clouds are round us and the snowdrifts thicken, 
O thou, dear spirits, leave us not to sicken 
In the waste night; our tardy footsteps quicken; 
At evening bring us home. 

— Anon. 



Hooking iBtyonb tins morlD 101 



CHAPTER VIII 

HEAVEN A COUNTRY 

"Man made the city, but God made the 
country 5 ' is a proverb which has come down to 
us from remote time. No doubt that which 
men call God had much to do with the city, 
and we are quite as sure that man has done 
his part to beautify the country. 

In writing of heaven as a country, we would 
also include the thought of the country heaven. 
There seems to be no valid objection to think- 
ing of heaven as a place, for whether we be- 
lieve in the narrow confines of the old-fash- 
ioned heaven, or the broader one of sphere 
after sphere, each much be, in a certain sense, 
localized. 

"We speak of the realms of the blest, 
Of that country so bright and so fair ; 

And oft are its glories confessed, 
But what must it be to be there ?" 



102 <E£tenDeO Vision or, 

A place presided over by a King, a Presi- 
dent, or some other ruler, may be rather a 
crude picture of the after life. It is difficult, 
however, to form a concept of a vast spiritual 
world without thinking of rules to govern, and 
rulers to carry out the plan of the ages. So 
universal is the heaven thought that most any 
form of plutocracy, or any kind of democracy 
cannot spell out all it means to the mind of 
man. Danger lies in carrying out any gov- 
ernmental form, or any figure to an extreme. 
If heaven, to the mind of one person, is simply 
an interior condition, born of good thoughts, 
resulting in pure actions, which bring happi- 
ness, even here we find the good encased in a 
shell, and the shell living within certain lim- 
its. This gives the thought that no matter 
how we view heaven we instinctively think of 
it as a place, and in so doing we open the 
thought avenues to the consideration of the 
heavenly country. "I go to prepare a place 
for you" is the comforting suggestion of the 
One who has given us a birdseye view of that 
country. Heaven presented simply as a city 
would not meet the ideal in the minds of those 
who are not acclimated to civic conditions. The 



Looking 15eponD tfjis morlD 103 

exterior must be in harmony with the inte- 
rior, or there could be no eternal felicity. Too 
many people in the flesh have been like round 
pegs in square holes for this condition to ob- 
tain hereafter. Heaven must be rest for the 
weary, work for the strenuous, growth for the 
undeveloped, reunion for the separated, home 
for the homeless, city for the man of affairs, 
country for the farmer, and, like Paul, "All 
things to all men." 

We want to write more especially of the 
country heaven. The place or condition where 
the man of rural tendencies will find an agree- 
able abode. Some people who may be "In 
tune with the Infinite are certainly out of tune 
with the finite." These other sheep must be 
brought also, and there must be one fold and 
one shepherd. 

It is said that some of our Presidents have 
been ill at ease in the White House. One pre- 
ferred his plantation, another his log cabin, 
another his law office, another the army, an- 
other a seat in the Cabinet, another a Diplo- 
matic relation, another the Rough Rider's sad- 
dle, etc. The house of "Many Mansions" 
would not be a fitting place for some who are 



104 «E*tettDeD IN 01 on or, 

adjusted to city conditions. The rising sun, 
the singing birds, the budding trees, the bleat- 
ing of the sheep, the lowing of the herd, the 
leafy trees, the sowing and gathering of the 
harvest, the quiet of the eventide, the after 
glow, the hush of the Sabbath, these and kin- 
dred environments bring peace and happiness 
to many souls. Out of these surroundings 
some would be unhappy, even in heaven. The 
hurry of many feet make such feel there must 
be a big fire somewhere. The noise of cars, 
teams, and pedestrians make many feel that 
pandemonium is let loose. The many con- 
veniences of the city are terrible annoyances to 
some ; even the talk of the people suggests an 
abnormal condition. The thought of enduring 
such things for an eternity would mean ever- 
lasting disappointment to many old-fashioned 
folk. A night spent in a great centre is a 
sleepless one to the man of rural habits, and 
there is a deep longing for the quiet home. 

Ample provision has been made in our spirit 
home for the dear friends who are enamored 
of country life, and those who like to spend a 
holiday out of the great cities. 

In painting a word picture of the country 



Looking OBepontJ tins »tlo 105 

heaven, Jesus takes us to a vineyard where we 
almost see the vines on the incline above the 
lake, and smell and taste the purple bunches 
of grapes. The Kingdom of Heaven He says 
is like this. Certainly such statements make 
the husbandman feel as though his wishes had 
been respected in the making up of the new 
life. Another figure is used to describe future 
scenes by the same speaker. Here we read of 
the "sowing of good seed in the field." This 
opens up the meadow lands of eternity so we 
are able with the eye of the soul to see the 
pastures with the sheep and herd feeding, the 
stream flowing hard by, the birds in the tree- 
tops, the sower and the reaper overtaking each 
other. 

"Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood, 

Stand dressed in living green; 
So to the Jews old Canaan stood, 

While Jordan rolled between." 

The Kingdom of Heaven is also likened "to 
a net cast into the sea." This makes our coun- 
try friends who go down to the sea in ships 
feel they have not been forgotten in the plan 
of the future. 

The sea, the fish, the green pastures, the still 



106 <8 z 1 1 n D e D ^ i i n or, 

waters, the fruit bearing trees, the domestic 
animals, the seed, the sower, the garden, the 
flowers, the birds, yea words have almost been 
exhausted in telling of that dear land where 
death shall be no more. 

We are all one great family on earth. The 
city cannot say I have no need of the country, 
any more than the foot can say I have no need 
of the hand. The country cannot say I have 
no need of the city, any more than the eye can 
say I have no need of the ear. All the mem- 
bers of the body work in harmony, or suffer 
together. All the people of the world are in- 
ter-dependent, and the Great Over- Soul has 
provided homes here and hereafter calculated 
to meet the needs of city and country folk. In 
that country a new flag will be run up to the 
masthead, never to be worn out by time, or 
destroyed by an enemy. The background will 
be of white, emblematic of purity; and ar- 
ranged on the pure silk will be the flags of 
all nations, and peoples, and tongues. Merged 
into one brotherhood, we shall go in and out, 
from city to country, or country to city, as 
we please, or sit under our own vine and fig 
tree, none daring to molest or make us afraid. 



Hooking 15epottD tt>i$ »rlD 107 



THE DRUMMER-BOY'S BURIAL. 

All day long the storm of battle through the startled 

valley swept; 
All night long the stars in heav'n o'er the slain sad 

vigils kept. 

Oh, the ghastly upturned faces gleaming whitely 
through the night! 

Oh, the heaps of mangled corpses in that dim sepul- 
chral light! 

One by one the pale stars faded, and at length the 

morning broke ; 
But not one of all the sleepers on that field of death 

awoke. 

Slowly passed the golden hours of that long, bright 

summer day, 
And upon that field of carnage still the dead unburied 

lay: 

Lay there stark and cold, but pleading with a dumb, 

unceasing prayer, 
For a little dust to hide them from the staring sun 

and air. 

But the foemen held possession of that hard-won 

battle-plain, 
In unholy wrath denying even burial to our slain. 

Once again the night dropped 'round them — night so 

holy and so calm 
That the moonbeams hushed the spirit, like the sound 

of prayer or psalm. 



108 <8ztznUtH Vision or, 

On a couch of trampled grasses, just apart from all 

the rest, 
Lay a fair young boy, with small hands meekly folded 

on his breast. 

Death had touched him very gently, and he lay as if in 

sleep — 
Even his mother scarce had shuddered at that slumber 

calm and deep; 

For a smile of wondrous sweetness lent a radiance to 

the face, 
And the hand of cunning sculptor could have added 

naught of grace 

To the marble lines so perfect in their passionless re- 
pose, 

Robbed of all save matchless purity by hard, unpity- 
ing foes. 

And the broken drum beside him all his life's short 

story told: 
How he did his duty bravely till the death-tide o'er 

him rolled. 

Midnight came with ebon garments and a diadem of 

stars, 
While right upward in the zenith hung the fiery 

planet Mars. 

Hark! a sound of stealthy footsteps and of voices 

whispering low — 
Was it nothing but the young leaves, or the brooklet's 

murmuring flow? 

Clinging closely to each other, striving never to look 
'round 



Looking OBeponD tins ft£totid 109 

As they passed with silent shudder the pale corpses 
on the ground, 

Came two little maidens — sisters — with a light and 

hasty tread, 
And a look upon their faces half of sorrow, half of 

dread. 

And they did not pause nor falter till, with throbbing 

hearts, they stood 
Where the Drummer-Boy was lying in that partial 

solitude. 

They had brought some simple garments from their 

wardrobe's scanty store, 
And two heavy iron shovels in their slender hands 

they bore. 

Then they quickly knelt beside him, crushing back 

the pitying tears, 
For they had no time for weeping, nor for any girlish 

fears. 

And they robed the icy body, while no glow of maiden 

shame 
Changed the pallor of their foreheads to a flush of 

lambent flame; 

For their saintly hearts yearned o'er it in that hour 

of sorest need, 
And they felt that Death was holy, and it sanctified 

the deed. 

But they smiled and kissed each other when their new, 
strange task was o'er, 

And the form that lay before them its unwonted gar- 
ments wore. 



no (Bxttnntn Vision or, 

Then with slow and weary labor a small grave they 

hollowed out, 
And they lined it with the withered grass and leaves 

that lay about. 

But the day was slowly breaking ere their holy work 

was done, 
And in crimson pomp the morning again heralded the 

sun. 

And then those little maidens — they were children of 

our foes — 
Laid the body of our Drummer-Boy to undisturbed 

repose. 

— Julia C. R. Dorr. 



Looking IBeponD ibi* »tlD in 



CHAPTER IX 

SPIRIT SOLDIERS OF THE CIVIL WAR 

On the nineteenth day of April, 1861, as 
the Sixth Massachusetts Regiment was pass- 
ing through Baltimore on its way to rescue 
the Capital at Washington, in compliance with 
the call of President Lincoln for seventy-five 
thousand men, it was attacked by a mob; and 
Charles A. Tyler, Luther C. Ladd, Sumner 
N. Nieedham, and Addison O. Whitney were 
killed. Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, 
telegraphed the Mayor of Baltimore: "I pray 
you to cause the bodies of the Massachusetts 
soldiers, dead in Baltimore, to be immediately 
laid out, and tenderly sent forward by express 
to me." All but one body was returned, and 
monuments erected to their memory. The 
body of Mr. Tyler — the first martyr who gave 
his life in defense of the Union — was never 
found. General Edward F. Jones, of Bing- 



112 (Extended Vision ot,' 

hamton, New York, though old and blind, still 
keeps up the search ; and hopes before his 
physical activities close to be able to locate 
the dust. A school teacher, by the name of 
H. A. Dobson, saw an account of the message 
sent from Massachusetts to Maryland; and 
this so impressed him that he sat on a lounge 
and wrote on a scrap of paper: "Send them 
home tenderly." 

SEND THEM HOME TENDERLY. 

Send them home tenderly: 

Guard them with care, 
Eager eyes tearfully, 

Watch for them there; 
Some hearts are mournfully 

Throbbing to know 
Gifted and manly sons, 

Stricken so low. 

Send them home tenderly: 

To the fair sod, 
First by the martyr soul'd 

Puritans trod; 
Blue hills and ocean wave 

Echo the prayer — 
Send them home tenderly, 

Love waits them there. 

Send them home tenderly: 
Poor breathless clay; 



Looking IBegonD tftf* motID 113 

Yet, what high hopefulness 

Bore them away; 
Hand to hand clingingly, 

Linked in brave trust — 
Tenderly, tenderly 

Bear home their dust. 

Send them home tenderly: 

Think of the sire, 
Struggling with mighty sobs, 

By the low fire; 
Think how a mother's heart 

Hourly hath bled, 
Tenderly, tenderly, 

Bear home her dead. 



No one dreamed of the lifeless armies which 
would be sent home from the ranks of the blue 
and the gray. No one expected the earth would 
be ploughed deep and long to accommodate 
the hosts of unknown dead. No one thought 
of the severed members which would be left 
in heaps in the sunny South, as maimed sol- 
diers went North and South to endure a liv- 
ing death. The patriotic prophet did not fore- 
see the Memorial Day which would be marked 
with tattered flags, dirge music, and the tramp 
of the remnant, who came back to tell the tale 
of courage and victory. He did not smell the 
perfume of the flowers which would send out 



114 <E* ten den Vision or, 

their aroma, and give their lives to cover the 
graves, decorate the monuments, or grace the 
homes of the widows and orphans. "The 
Grand Army of the Republic" is a sight never 
to be forgotten, as it marches on the thirtieth 
of May to perpetuate the memory of their 
comrades. It differs from all other parades, 
because the youth and rising generation can- 
not fill up the ranks which are being thinned 
out with great rapidity. In April, 1861, there 
was but one death to head the list; in a short 
time there will be but one life to mark the 
graves of the fallen; and should he undertake 
the herculean task, he would complete what 
Tyler began. 

Can we do for these noble ones who linger 
a while in homes which their dearest have left, 
any deeds of kindness w^hich are not now being 
done? Can we do anything to please those 
who are wrapped in the hearts of our citizens, 
in the flag of our country, and in the bosom 
of Mother Earth, more than we are doing? 

Japan may have learned how to build war- 
ships, and prosecute a successful war, from 
America. She is known now as one of the 
world's powers. If we taught her how to kill, 



Looking IBeponD thi* ft&oriO 115 

let her teach Americans how to observe "Me- 
morial Day." "The Japanese celebrate their 
Decoration Day better than we Americans 
do," said a man who recently returned from 
Japan. This is the story of what he saw and 
heard: A few years ago I was in Tokio. It 
was not long after the Japanese-Russian war, 
and a great ceremony was to take place in 
Ueno Park corresponding to our Decoration 
Day. There was an immense crowd of peo- 
ple there, fifteen or twenty thousand, I sup- 
pose, and they were lined up along one side 
of the great parade ground. Gen. Oyama, 
who had been in charge of the Japanese arm- 
ies during the war, was present and made a 
speech. 

Then he said: "I will now review the army 
of the dead." He turned away from the crowd 
and stood facing the parade. All of the 
crowd uncovered and stood silent as statues, 
looking toward that big empty space. 

I couldn't understand it at first, and asked 
a Japanese friend what it meant. "Look!" he 
whispered, "do you not see them? The Japa- 
nese soldiers and sailors who died in the war 
against Russia are passing in review. Be still 



116 <E*ten&eti Vision or, 

and look. A Japanese who dies in battle with 
the enemies of his emperor does not really die 
at all. Because of his heroism his spirit comes 
back to Japan to roam free and unfettered in 
his native land forever. And now they are 
passing in review. See!" 

I looked at the general, who stood staring 
straight into the air, but with a look on his 
face as though he actually was gazing on flesh 
and blood soldiers. At times he would put 
his hand to his head in salute. "The colors are 
passing," my friend would whisper. I looked 
at the people around me. They stood as if 
transfixed, seemingly staring into the empty 
air, but on their faces was the look of 
people beholding a wonderful spectacle. Do 
you know, somehow, the thing caught me. I 
almost thought I saw that vast spirit army my- 
self. "Look!" whispered the Japanese at my 
elbow. "Don't you see them? There they are, 
passing, regiment by regiment. There are 
the boys who went down from the heights of 
Port Arthur. And there are the men who 
lay wounded until frozen to death on the 
plains of Mukden. 

"There are the thousands who died in the 



Looking IBeponD tin* SOorlO 117 

awful twelve days' struggle along the Sha Ho. 
And see, there are spirit guns, drawn by spirit 
horses. And look, there are the sailors who 
died at Chemulpo, and during the blockade 
and in Togo's great victory. Look, they are 
cheering. Do you not hear them? See them 
march. There they are, the men who died 
for their emperor and for their country, and 
who will now live forever in their own beau- 
tiful Japan." 

If we Americans had a better development 
of the soul eye, when the last one has fallen, 
and the first Memorial Day dawns without a 
living representative of the Civil War, we 
would see — not the picture which last burst 
upon us with its sad lesson of mortality — but 
rather the picture of them as young men, 
hardly more than boys, rallying at their coun- 
try's call. We would hear them say "Good- 
bye" to mother, father, brother, sister, and 
sweetheart, before marching to the front. We 
would see them in their drills, see them in 
camp, see them marching under the blazing 
sun, until they stood in front of the enemy. 
We would hear the cannon roar, the bullets 
whistle, and look upon the battle field. We 



118 OEstettDeD $10 ion or, 

would see the rivers of blood as the noble 
fell. Let the Japanese teach us to cultivate 
the psychic sight, so that at the cemetery we 
may see something more than sunken mounds 
of earth, on which a faded flag is flying. We 
should be able to lift up the eyes, and see the 
spirited troops passing in review — Grant, 
Lee, Sherman, Picket, Logan, Thomas, and 
all the others who wore the blue and the gray 
— some of them our fathers, husbands, sons, 
and friends! It is well to keep in remem- 
brance Memorial Day; but it would be bet- 
ter, if, on each returning Memorial Day they 
could be with us. Surely we should be able 
to see as much as the Mikado, or a Japanese 
General and the rank and file of the wise 
men from the East. They pass in review each 
Memorial Day; and unless we are soon able 
to see them with the eye of the soul from the 
spirit side of life, and salute them as they 
pass by, the National Day will come to be a 
funeral without corpse or companion. 



Looking OBegonD fbi* Wioiin 119 1 



THE PSALM OF LIFE. 

Tell me not in mournful numbers, Life is but an 

empty dream! 
For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are 

not what they seem. 

Life is real ! Life is earnest ! And the grave is not 

its goal; 
Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of 

the soul. 

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end 

or way; 
But to act, that each to-morrow Find us farther than 

to-day. 

Art is long and time is fleeting, And our hearts, 

though stout and brave, 
Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches 

to the grave. 

In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of 

life, 
Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the 

strife ! 

Trust no future, howe'er pleasant! Let the dead 

past bury its dead! 
Act, — act in the living present! Heart within, and 

GOD o'erhead! 

Lives of great men all remind us We can make our 

lives sublime, 
And departing leave behind us Footprints on the 

sands of time! 



120 <Bztzn*t* IN 01 on or, 

Footprints that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's 

solemn main, 
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take 

heart again. 

Let us then be up and doing, With a heart for any 

fate ; 
Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to 

wait. 

— Longfellow. 



Looking TSeponD » motID 121 



CHAPTER X 

HEAVEN A CONDITION 

A quarter of a century ago, when religion- 
ists used to think more of personal experience 
than they seem to at the present time, we often 
heard them tell in their revival meetings about 
"A Heaven to go to Heaven in." This ex- 
pression seemed to come from them only when 
they were wrought up with religious emotions, 
and were, as they called it, " Happy in the 
Lord." A psychological note was struck by 
them which should have resounded as long as 
time endures. Men and women under spirit 
inspiration often speak wiser than they know. 
Some of these sayings should be stored up for 
future examination and exemplification. 
With or without these ecstatic emotions we 
should know that all the grandeur and utility 
of a great heavenly city, all the beauty and 
sublimity of a far-reaching heavenly country, 



122 <£st en tieti Vision or, 

would count for naught to us if our inward 
life failed to respond to these outward sur- 
roundings. 

Two trains were waiting under a shed to 
take on excursion parties. On one side of the 
platform a lot of clubmen were going away 
for a "free and easy"; on the other side of the 
platform a thousand children were waiting the 
pull of the iron horse to carry them to the 
open country. A belated passenger rushed 
through the gate as the train pulled out, and 
succeeded in jumping on the rear platform 
with the thought of a rollicking time, plenty 
of cigars, and much beer. He rushed into the 
coach to find he had boarded the wrong train. 
He was miserable beyond description, simply 
because his life was not adjusted to innocent 
childhood. His heart craved that which could 
not be found in the purity of youth. That 
man and millions like him, would be miserable 
in a heaven such as the church believes in, be- 
cause there would be no "Heaven to go to 
Heaven in." No man could build a heaven 
which would meet the requirements of other 
men. God might construct a heaven of gigan- 
tic proportions which would be an utter fail- 



Looking: ISegonD tm MJorlD 123 

ure did he not take into account the persons 
who would inhabit it. Knowing this fact, 
Jesus taught the basic lesson that "The King- 
dom of God is within." 

There is no Heaven for us here or hereafter, 
save that which we make for ourselves. We 
are Heaven or Hell, according to the quality 
of our interior life. It is within our province 
to make mansions for the soul, as grand as 
any others in all the sidereal expanse, provid- 
ing we will pay the price for the same. 

We must cease to expect a realm of bliss in 
the future for which we are entirely unfitted. 
We must begin to construct character with the 
thought in mind that our objective heaven 
will be only the reflex of our subjective heav- 
en. A colored cook said to her mistress: "I 
only ask de good Lord to give me one hour of 
peace before I die to get ready for the Judg- 
ment, and I sure will meet you in Heaven." 
This person would lie, swear, drink, and steal 
chickens; she had no idea of character build- 
ing, for she had been nursed on the doctrine 
of imputed righteousness. This teaching has 
held back the white race as well as the black, 
for very little soul-development is taking place 



124 <Bxtttxt}tH Vision or, 

where people believe salvation and heaven 
has been purchased for them, and where even 
their hymns have voiced the sentiment, "Noth- 
ing either great or small remains for me to 
do." 

Out of a smoky kitchen into a heavenly 
condition is not ours simply by saying, "I am 
sorry." There has been too much dependence 
placed upon the lives of others. Let us look 
to our own fitness for the best things, re- 
membering that the processes of evolution are 
slow, but they are sure. Give the acorn time, 
and the sturdy oak will send out its giant arms. 
Jonah's gourd will die in the morning because 
it was grown in a night, so character by proxy 
will prove to be as dead as Jonah's umbrella. 
We cannot change from a hut to a palace in 
a day, only that which is involved will be 
evolved. 

The children of a certain class of the 
wealthy who go through this world boasting of 
riches gained by others, doing no useful work, 
are human leeches. The people who would 
enter into heavenly blessings without spiritual 
fitness, would be heavenly leeches. Could the 
children of the rich be deprived of family. 



Hooking IBeponD tins ffOorlD 125 

credit and thrown on their own merit, it would 
be far better for them in the long run. Such 
worthless weaklings would bankrupt the Roth- 
childs, give them time enough ; so a character- 
less individual who might get into Heaven by 
climbing up some other way than by the step- 
pings of character, would sap heavenly re- 
sources for all eternity, and give no good 
thing in return. Permit certain individuals to 
live in the best appointed house on your 
street, and they would despoil it in less than 
a year. Enough of such unworthy persons 
are supposed to be on the uncertain path to 
glory, to cause heavenly insolvency. A great 
surprise awaits these individuals. If there is 
no heaven in thy character now, being born 
into the best life in the universe would not 
bring thee to Heaven. "The Kingdom of 
Heaven is within." 

"I sent my soul through the invisible 

Some letter of that after life to spell ; 
And by and by my soul returned to me, and answered, 

"I myself, am Heaven, and Hell." 

Should this make thee shake with fear, re- 
joice that the lesson has been learned this side 



126 4£* ten tied tMsiott or, 

the grave, that thou mayest prepare a home 
of beauty for the years which never die. 

Judas sat at the "Passover Feast" with his 
Master, an accredited Apostle, and there 
planned to sell him for $16.96. In the one 
person there was so large an internal Heaven 
he was willing to undertake to build for others. 
In Judas there was mercenary greed, and it is 
recorded of him "He went to his own place." 
So does every person who goes to the bourne 
from which no traveler returns. Lucifer is 
represented as having fallen like lightning 
from Heaven. The magnet holds the steel 
to itself, so Heaven claims and holds those who 
are heavenly. We are a repository of infinite 
possibilities, but these must be worked out by 
us into eternal virtues. 

The artist's "blue print" and "specifications" 
indicate what things of beauty and utility 
could be wrought out of raw material; but 
men must toil, money must be invested, and 
stone must be cut and polished, or there will 
be nothing but blue print and specifications. 

A miniature Heaven has been deposited in 
our organism; it is ours to develop it; failing 
to do so, we need not expect any one else to 



Looking IBegonD tin'0 MIotlD 127 

do it for us. Inheriting much from those who 
gave us birth, and receiving more from the 
Angels of guidance, we should enter with 
sanctified vigor into the work of character 
building. When the time is ripe for our trans- 
ition we will find the counterpart of our sub- 
jective Heaven wrought out in a splendid ob- 
jective creation on which we may gaze with 
satisfaction, and others look upon with ad- 
miration. Expect nothing in the future which 
you fail to work out in the present. 

In every place your feet press the earth, 
you will finfl as much Heaven as you develop, 
and wherever you dwell in all the vast realms 
of the infinite, you will carry with you the 
Heaven of your own creation. 

From the subjective viewpoint, "The King- 
dom of Heaven" is within you, and from the 
objective vantage ground, the "Kingdom of 
Heaven" is city, country, and the vast expanse 
of worlds. 

Make for yourself a Heaven to go to 
Heaven in. 



128 (Bxtzntitti Vision or, 



BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN. 

Oh, deem not they are blest alone 
Whose lives a peaceful tenor keep. 

The Power who pities man hath shown 
A blessing for the eyes that weep. 

The light of smiles shall fill again 
The lids that overflow with tears ; 

And weary hours of woe and pain 
Are promises of happier years. 

There is a day of sunny rest 

For every dark and troubled night; 

And grief may bide an evening guest, 
But joy shall come with early light. 

And thou who, o'er thy friend's low bier, 
Dost shed the bitter drops like rain, 

Hope that a brighter, happier sphere 
Will give him to thy arms again. 

Nor let the good man's trust depart, 
Though life its common gifts deny, — 

Though with a pierced and bleeding heart, 
And spurned of men, he goes to die. 

For God hath marked each sorrowing day 

And numbered every secret tear, 
And heaven's long age of bliss shall pay 

For all His children suffer here. 

— William Cullen Bryant. 



Looking IBtponH t&fe ftOorlD 129 



CHAPTER XI 

SUICIDE AND ITS AFTER RESULTS 

The newsboys cry too frequently, "Get an 
extra — full account of the suicide." Let us 
hope the time may come when newspapers 
will not, unnecessarily, develop the morbid in 
man by such harrowing incidents. Let us 
hope the time may come when thousands of 
young boys will not have their minds polluted 
by acquaintance with such details. Our youth- 
ful sellers of papers, through which they eke 
out a precarious living, are coming to imagine 
that these blood-curdling accounts — vividly 
portrayed by the daily press — will most suc- 
cessfully arouse public interest in the pur- 
chase of a paper. 

The word "suicide" almost causes the blood 
to coagulate. The bad psychological effect of 
this kind of departure from mortal life can 
scarcely be comprehended. It stirs the present 



130 CstentieD Vision or, 

age with unmusical vibrations, and sends dis- 
cord into Nature's realm which will not cease 
for ages to come. Like the pebble in the lake, 
the circles widen and touch every shore. The 
army of those who have passed on by this 
method, and the forming army which are con- 
templating such an exit, is one of the most 
pathetic visions one can possibly have. They 
might well be styled, "Night Scenes in the 
Dream of Life." The old people, male and 
female, to whom only a few more jolts down 
the incline of life, needed to be experienced 
before they came to an honorable end; the 
stalwart men of business who were overcome 
with a sense of financial loss, and saw no way 
out but the gate of death; the young people 
who could not get a footing on the earth, and 
wished they had never been born, because they 
despaired of achieving their ideals; the girls 
who went wrong and feared to have even 
mother look into their eyes; the young men 
who feared exposure ; the temporarily dement- 
ed ones; the broken hearted; the ones who 
seemed to have no cause for the rash act. They 
all come up before us like dreams in the night, 
as though they could not have formed a part 



Looking 13eponO tins £2IorIO 131 

of human history. Shall we condemn them 
for their deed of madness ? They had no moral 
right to take that which they could not give, 
yet they were not altogether to blame. Her- 
edity must come in for its share ; environment 
played its part; the wrong adjustment of so- 
ciety had much to do with it. 

We pity the individual, and only censure 
the causes which led up to it. The after cause 
of such conduct strikes terror to relatives and 
friends left behind. A chapter deep with trag- 
edy might be written about the desolate 
homes, and the wound which Time will never 
heal — especially in the heart of a mother, 
father, or other close ties. This is too sad to 
dwell upon. Those who are passing through 
this misunderstood grief carry the memory of 
the departed everywhere; and they feel like 
crying out, as did Paul: "Who shall deliver 
me from the body of this death?" They ask 
from the heart what they dare not voice with 
the lips : "Where is my child?" It is impossi- 
ble to answer the question and not cause some 
added sorrow. It will, however, be the sorrow 
of hope. If beings who thus went out of this 
life, suffering too deeply to remain longer, 



132 <£ £ t e n D e D Vision or, 

have gone into a place of everlasting sorrow, 
where they cannot be released through any act 
of their own, some angel, somewhere, should 
devise a way of escape. No ! No ! They shall 
not always be out of adjustment over there, 
if they could not be adjusted here. 

A boy jumping from the Grammar School 
into the University, could hardly expect to 
feel comfortable for a while. A man who does 
not understand the mode of locomotion might 
not manage an air ship very well for a while. 
A passenger might find some difficulty were 
he to undertake to be a motorman without 
having been taught. The one who snapped 
the brittle thread of life because he could not 
manage a mortal body and human discourage- 
ments, is not on the other side very long be- 
fore he discovers he was not ripe for promo- 
tion. How is he to handle a spiritual body 
and overcome spiritual foes, if he failed here? 
Does the one who fails to direct a toy boat in 
a river expect to walk the quarter-deck of an 
ocean liner dressed in a captain's uniform, and 
take the floating palace into port without 
harm? Could they have known some of the 
battles of darkness which are being fought; 



Looking iBeponO tins SOotlO 133 

some of the clinging to earth and earthly 
things, they would have endured to the end. 
The fruit should cling to the tree until it is 
ripe. The spirit should cling to the mortal 
body until it is ripe for the grave. Those who 
pass out before either by suicide or accident, 
suffer a great loss, but not an everlasting one. 
They go, for a time, into spiritual darkness, 
which causes them pain similar to that which 
we experience in a terrible dream. One who 
had gone out two years sent back the message : 
"I have not yet fully emerged from the dark- 
ened condition, into which I went as the result 
of my rash act ; but you can help me, and have 
helped me." This one had hung herself be- 
cause of the deed of others. The way we can 
help them is to send out thoughts of light and 
progression, and frequently from the heart 
speak such words as would naturally help to 
dispel the darkness. By mutual help this pe- 
riod of darkness may be shortened. Another 
retarding feature of such a passing out is, they 
cling to the mortal body, and this is apt to ob- 
tain until its disintegration. The cremation of 
such bodies would be a wonderful help to such 
individuals, as they could sooner rise out of 



134 dtenDeD Vision or, 

the earth-bound sphere into the upper grade 
where a larger and easier evolution would be 
theirs. They often cling to the earth, espec- 
ially if the home contains clothing and other 
things with which they were associated. Burn 
all such things, and make the hearthstone as 
cheerful and refreshing as possible. A de- 
pressed feeling hangs like a pall upon them 
when they see the things which were associated 
with them in their last days in the body. 
Above all things destroy any weapons with 
which they inflicted bodily injury to them- 
selves. Make the home inviting, so they may 
take hold on a new life. Do not think of them 
as lost, for they will sense that, and it will be 
like weights holding them down into the black- 
ness of darkness. Do not think of them as be- 
ing happy with the angels, for this will cause 
them to know you are not fighting with them 
the "overcoming fight," and feeling their prog- 
ress. Their struggle is not now against blood 
and flesh, but against "the principalities," 
against "the authorities," against "the world- 
holders of the darkness," against " the spirit- 
ual forces of evil in the heavenlies." On this 
account have an intelligent comprehension of 



Looking IBegonO tm MJortD 135 

their efforts, and wisely aid them. The out- 
come of it will be victory for them ; but before 
the crown there is a heavy cross. Could they 
speak to the hosts who are thinking of this 
leap into the dark, they would urge them with 
deep urging to only exchange worlds when the 
body is ripe for the grave and the spirit for 
the glory. 

There is only one ideal physical death. The 
most of the human family have come short of 
it, and we are coming short. There is a tre- 
mendous inspiration in it ; and we should turn 
it over in our minds, very frequently; and 
teach it often and earnestly, to the young. 
Here it is: "Moses was an hundred and 
twenty years old when he died." "His eye 
was not dim, nor his natural force abated." 
That is what I call ripening for the next ex- 
pression of life. No illness, no gradual break- 
ing down of the physical system, not even a 
cloud before the eye. He had endured as 
much as any man, but he endured to the end. 
He went "up from the plains into the moun- 
tain," and has been going up ever since. His 
body died as the ripe fruit falls from the tree, 
without disease. Spirit buried the sacred body 



136 <Z£*tenDeD Vision or, 

in the valley and buried the grave ; so no man 
knows of his sepulchre to this day; but the 
liberated soul went out into greater possibili- 
ties than Canaan held; and he still finds the 
heavenly land flowing with milk and honey. 

Is your heart bleeding because some loved 
one has gone in the unexpected way? For- 
get self for a while ; and let your spiritualized 
thought enable them to progress. Is your life 
sorrowful because of its own burdens, which 
are not understood by others? Endure to the 
end; and if you do not come to the close of 
this life with your natural forces unabated, 
and your eye undimmed, get as near these 
conditions as you are able; and believe that 
as an angel buried Moses' body, the friends, 
on both sides, will care for yours ; and you will 
go "up from the plain into the mountain"; 
and the "House of Many Mansions" will be 
yours f orevermore, and there will be no empty 
chair. 



Looking IBeponD tftfs KiotiD 137 



CROSSING THE BAR. 

Sunset and evening star, 

And one clear call for me. 
And may there be no moaning of the bar, 

When I put out to sea. 

But such a tide as moving seems asleep, 

Too full for sound and foam, 
When that which drew from out the boundless deep 

Turns again home. 

Twilight and evening bell, 

And after that the dark ! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell 

When I embark. 

For though from out our bourne of time and place 

The flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my pilot face to face 

When I have crossed the bar. 

— Lord Tennyson. 



CHAPTER XII 

heaven's vast shadow 

Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon from 
the text, "Their feet shall slip in due time." 
It was carefully written, and deliberately read 
without taking his eyes off the paper, or mak- 
ing one gesture; yet it is said such terrible 
consternation spread over the audience men 
actually threw their arms around the pillars 
of the church to keep from slipping into hell. 
That was in the days when the minister 
thought for the people, and administered allo- 
pathic doses of "Hell and Brimstone" to sage 
and sinner, whether they needed it or not. 
That sermon is still extant, yet if it were de- 
livered now to any congregation, it would have 
no dire effect; no doubt many could not hold 
their interest to the end, and would fall into a 
dreamless sleep. 

Mr. Edwards has passed on where we trust 
139 



140 CstenOeD Vision or, 

he has learned a better gospel ere this, and his 
old-fashioned heavy theology is still up in sec- 
ond-hand book stores, or kept on the shelves 
of those who collect freaks of antiquity. The 
world has outgrown both the New England 
preacher and his preachment. 

Passing over the years, we come down to 
the time of D wight L. Moody, a man of splen- 
did organizing ability, one who was quick to 
take the pulse of the body politic, and extreme- 
ly magnetic. He saw that each service was 
carried on the sweet and powerful wings of 
song, and when the masses were psychologized 
by the harmonious vibrations, he preached 
of "Faith, Hope and Love." A remnant of 
the old school were deeply displeased at his 
optimistic views, and waited for him ; upbraid- 
ing him with the charge of preaching "only 
one-half of the gospel," and demanded that 
he give the people h — ! After considerable 
persuasion they secured his promise to speak 
on the theme. When that famous sermon was 
delivered it was noted that the "burning lake" 
was not in evidence. Satan was not present in 
his grotesque make-up, and there was no sup- 
ply of brimstone. Had the "Lake of Fire" 



Looking IBeponD tfti* »iriD wi 

burned out since the time of Calvin, Edwards 
and Swan? There were no hymns appropri- 
ate for such an occasion; and it was plain for 
him to see a service which would please the 
committee would be a misfit, so with tears in 
his voice, and tenderness in his heart, he rang 
the changes on the old poem: 

"To sit alone with my conscience, 
Would be judgment enough for me!' 

"I sat alone with my conscience, 

In the place where time had ceased ; 

And we talked of my former living 
In the land where the years increased. 

Ghosts of forgotten actions, 

Came floating before my sight; 
And the things I thought had perished, 

Were alive with a terrible might. 

So I know that a future Judgment, 

How dreadful so e're it be ; 
Is to sit alone with my conscience, 

And that's Judgment enough for me." 

The Hades of our time is a rational one. 
Gerald Massey, in his epic poem entitled "A 
Tale of Eternity," makes the dead murderer, 
in reply to the query, "Where do you dwell?" 
use these pathetic words : 



142 OBstenDetJ IN 1 o n or, 

"I, the doomed murderer, doth dwell, 

In Heaven's vast shadow, which the good call Hell." 

The spirit of the murderer is not ripe for 
the higher spiritual spheres, even though the 
Priest walks with him to the scaffold, and tells 
him his peace is made with God. We are 
judged by the accumulated record of earth's 
experiences, and not by the words muttered 
by the lips as we meet the inevitable. It 
would be a grave injustice to open the doors of 
Heaven to a murderer who had been given 
time after his rash act to accept man-made 
creeds, and to close that door to the moral man 
who was overtaken by surprise when the shot 
ushered him into spirit conditions. The one 
who sows to the wind must reap the whirl- 
wind. 

There is no perdition here or hereafter save 
that which we make for ourselves. This un- 
fortunate one made his own Hades. The great 
Over Soul has never destroyed a single soul. 
He never made a place of eternal burning for 
the human race, and so missed his calculations 
as to be obliged to enlarge it. The old preach- 
ers used to say this, and take for their text 
the words, "Hell hath enlarged itself." This 



Looking 15eponD tins auotlD 143 

verse has no reference whatever to conditions 
after earth's dream. It refers to "God's 
Acre," the graveyard, which is ever extending 
its domain, so that now there are more than 
half a million in one enclosure, and so many 
of these resting-places one could hardly count 
them. The passage should read, "The grave 
hath enlarged itself." 

Sad to relate many are making records 
which will throw them after this life into 
"Heaven's Vast Shadow," when they might 
have gone into the higher spheres of light and 
love. We begin the spirit life just where we 
close the earth life. If one leaves Ohio for 
New York, they begin in the metropolitan city 
with the same character and desires they had 
in Ohio. 

There is nothing in the accident of death 
to change character. "He that is filthy let 
him be filthy still ; and he that is holy let him 
be holy still." 

It is said in the earth-bound spheres the 
spirits are under a cloud, the air seems heavy; 
and a sense of gloom settles over all. Even 
Nature there seems blighted. 

Murderers are not the only ones who go 



144 <E*tenDeD ^101 on or, 

to "Heaven's Vast Shadow." Many men 
whom the world honored, are encrowned kings 
there. The plutocracy and the American poli- 
tician stand there side by side. 

One might feel he had gotten into a great 
political line at some State Capitol, or were 
visiting Washington, were they to look out 
upon the men of distinction who are in semi- 
darkness. Ministers by the thousands of many 
denominations mingle with the throng. Kings 
of finance are there in soul poverty, which is 
the most abject insolvency. The rich, the 
poor, the learned, the unlearned, the selfish, 
the sordid, the vicious, are among the wretches 
there. With all of its shadow and misery, it is 
not to be compared with the orthodox hell 
which is supposed to burn forever. 

This terrible experience is not a fixed and 
eternal one. Good spirits go there to help 
these unfortunate souls, as noble men and 
women go down into the submerged quarters 
of our great cities to help "rescue the perish- 
ing, and care for the dying." 

Sin is the result of imperfect development 
of the higher faculties, or want of proper con- 
trol of the lower faculties. We may "hate the 



Looking TSeponD tins a&otlB 145 

sin with all our heart, but still the sinner love." 
By relating ourselves to them, as we would to 
a wandering child, we help them to realize 
their error, fault, or sin — so they soon desire 
to reach a higher plane of conduct, and live 
a more harmonious life. The story of "Mul- 
berry Bend" in New York City is apropos of 
the two worlds. Mrs. E. M. Whittemore vis- 
ited dens of vice for many years, rescuing fal- 
len girls. One evening she plucked a "Red 
Rose" from her garden and held it up as she 
prayed it might be the means of bringing some 
prodigal girl to herself. About two in the 
morning she went into a joint in a sub-base- 
ment known to be one of the hardest in the 
tenderloin quarter. There she saw a gam- 
ing-table with a party well under the influence 
of drink and morphine. Among them was one 
dressed in an unwashed blue calico dress. She 
was unkempt and uncombed, her face dirty, 
and her hands and neck begrimed. Here 
surely was a human wreck, and one of the 
most loveless creatures she had ever gazed 
upon. Something said to her awakened her 
from her stupor and she gave her the red rose. 
Smoothing back her disheveled hair, and 



146 OBstenUeti Vision or, 

speaking to her in tones of love, she was able 
to arouse her. Placing the rose in her hand, 
and a kiss on her forehead (the only pure one 
she had received for years) , the good lady said 
to her: "If you ever want a friend and a 
mother, come to the 'Door of Hope.' :> In the 
morning she was thrown out of the place. 
Looking at the faded rose, which was falling 
apart, she remembered, "My life was once as 
beautiful as that rose was last night; and it 
is just like it now — faded and falling to decay. 
I will go to the 'Door of Hope' to see the 
beautiful woman who kissed me." After a 
talk in the drawing room she was given a bath, 
a change of clothing, home comforts, and a 
love welcome. The Divinity within her was 
aroused; and she never fell again. The years 
of sin had wrought havoc with her body; and 
in a few months consumption claimed her. 
Up to the last she would work for her old 
companions; and when her lifeless body lay 
in state in the "Door of Hope," hundreds of 
rescue workers viewed it. They had grown to 
love her. Sixty of her old chums kissed the 
cold clay; and as the tears coursed down their 
cheeks, said: "She set my feet in the path 



JLoobinff IBeponD tins MlotlO 147 

of virtue." Such rescue work will be carried 
on in "Heaven's Vast Shadow," and more 
"Delias" will be taken from spiritual "Mul- 
berry Bends," and will pass through the "Door 
of Hope." Their sad state is not a fixed one 
— neither is it everlasting. Good spirits go to 
the unfortunate ones in the earth-bound 
sphere as noble men and women go down 
into the slums of our great cities. 

We even read that Jesus "Preached unto 
spirits in prison," and Peter tells us his object 
was, "That they might be judged according to 
men in the flesh, but live according to God in 
the spirit." This, then, is a remedial work, 
and the sufferers are constantly becoming con- 
valescent, and also cured — after the wild oat 
harvest of earth has been gathered in. 

This is the great spirit missionary field; 
those eminently qualified for such work go 
down and bring up souls, as one in this life 
goes into the muddy pond, where the water 
has a crust of green scum upon it, and brings 
out beautiful, fragrant "Pond Lilies." Such 
souls are brought to realize that love is the 
dynamic power of the universe, and the only 
creative and sustaining force in existence. 



148 (Bzttntitti Vision or 



AN ANGEL STOOD IN HIS GARDEN. 

An angel stood in his garden, 

Among his lilies so fair, 
Which his own right hand had planted, 

And trained with the tenderest care; 
He looked at their snowy blossoms, 

And marked with observant eye. 
That his flowers were sadly drooping, 

For their leaves were parched and dry. 

My lilies have need to be watered, 

The heavenly angel said, 
Wherein shall I draw it for them, 

And raise each dropping head? 
Close, close to his feet on the pathway, 

All empty, and frail, and small, 
Was an earthen vessel lying, 

That seemed of no use at all. 

The angel saw and raised it, 

From the dust in which it lay, 
And smiled as he gladly whispered, 

My work it shall do to-day. 
It is but an earthly vessel, 

But close it is lying to me, 
It is small, but clean, and empty, 

That is all it need to be. 

So forth to the fountain he bore it, 

And filled it up to the brim. 
How glad was the earthen vessel, 

To be of some use to him, 



Hooking TBeponD tins? £&otlD 149 

He poured forth the living water, 

All over the lilies so fair, 
Till empty was the vessel, 

And again he filled it there. 

The drooping lilies he watered, 

Till all reviving again, 
The angel saw with pleasure, 

His labor had not been in vain. 
His own hand drew the water, 

Refreshing the thirsty flowers, 
But he used the earthen vessel 

To convey the living showers. 

And then to itself it whispered, 

As aside he laid it once more, 
I still will lie in the pathway, 

Just where I did before, 
For close would I keep to the angel, 

And empty would I remain, 
Perchance some day he will use me, 

To water his flowers again. 

"Whether there be prophecies, they shall 
fail; whether there be tongues, they shall 
cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall 
vanish away, but Love never faileth." 

"When that which is perfect is come, then 
that which is in part shall be done away." 
When this lesson is learned, suffering souls 
move out of "Heaven's Vast Shadow," into 
Heaven's effulgent glory. 



150 <E*tenOeo Vision or, 



GOD OF THE GRANITE. 

God of the Granite and the Rose ! 

Soul of the Sparrow and the Bee ! 
The mighty tide of Being flows 

Through countless channels, Lord, from thee. 
It leaps to life in grass and flowers, 

Through every grade of being runs, 
Till from Creation's radiant towers, 

Its glory flames in stars and suns. 

O, ye who sit and gaze on life 

With folded hands and fettered will, 
Who only see, amid the strife, 

The dark supremacy of ill, — 
Know, that like the birds, and streams, and flowers, 

The life that moves you is Divine ! 
Nor time, nor space, nor human powers, 

Your God-like spirit can confine. 

God of the Granite and the Rose ! 

Soul of the Sparrow and the Bee! 
The mighty tide of Being flows 

Through all thy creatures back to thee. 
Thus 'round and 'round the circle runs — 

A mighty sea without a shore — 
While men and angels, stars and suns, 

Unite to praise thee evermore. 

■ — Lizzie Dot en. 



Looking OBegonD this »irlO 151 



CHAPTER XIII 

DIED OUTSIDE THE CHURCH 

The "Dead March From Saul" is never so 
dead, and the funeral tramp never so weird 
and solemn, as when there is being borne to 
the tomb the mortal remains of one declared 
irreligious. One hundred years ago ministers 
of certain types dared to stand at the head of 
a coffin, and in the presence of sorrowing rela- 
tives, friends, and neighbors, consign the soul 
to the everlasting fires of perdition. This was 
done without a quiver in the voice, a tear from 
the eye, or a pang in the heart. Those were 
the days when such texts as these were 
preached from on funeral occasions: "As a 
tree falleth, so it shall lie." They did not 
think or speak of that other text, which reads : 
"There is hope of a tree if it be cut down that 
it will grow again." Another favorite was, 
"The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Just as 



152 <E*tettOeD $f*ion or, 

though the speaker, in common with all man- 
kind, had not made a varied record in that 
same line. Still another verse was used, run- 
ning like this: "He that offendeth in one 
point is guilty in all." Scores of such pas- 
sages were used to curse the dead and frighten 
the living. Certain schools of comforting (?) 
ministers quoted from the " Confessions of 
Faith," to the effect that God had created a 
fixed number to be eternally damned for His 
glory, and that number could not be added to 
or taken from. 

Who can blame the ones who felt the death 
sweat coming, and the feet being gathered 
up, for fighting the inevitable, promising ref- 
ormation, fortune, and even crowns, if the 
death Angel would but fold his wings and 
quietly steal away. It is marvelous that mil- 
lions left behind in the world to sorrow with 
a hopeless agony did not lose their reason and 
commit suicide. 

Many religious teachers will have to apolo- 
gize to the wronged souls when they get on 
the other side of life. No wonder crepe was 
hung on the door, black hearses used, men, 
women, and little children, weighed down with 



Looking 15eponO tbt* OlotlD 153 

the habiliments of mourning. Choirs sang: 
"Hark from the tomb a doleful sound," and 
the church bells tolled with awful minor thuds, 
"Lost," "Lost." Liberal minded investigators 
turned the searchlight of Reason into the dark 
tunnel of Death, and they made discoveries 
which have changed the whole aspect of the 
hereafter, and modified funeral services. How 
the writer would like to conduct the funeral of 
every person who had confessed no religion. 
He would preach the preachment of truth, and 
soberness, yet it would not malign the dead, or 
add a sorrow to the living. The light of rea- 
son has caused the clergymen to change their 
abuse of the dead. Now, they say nothing 
about the personal life of the departed, if 
that did not measure up to the moral demands 
of the community in which they lived. They 
preach to the living under such circumstances, 
and they think if they please the relatives, 
some will be drawn to their church, and, at 
last, their services will receive more monetary 
recompense. Men are beginning to see that 
God cannot lose anything. Tennyson struck 
the keynote when he sang : 



154 dtenDeD $i$ton or, 

"O, yet we trust that somehow good 
Will be the final goal of ill, 
To pangs of nature, sins of will, 
Defects of doubt, and taints of blood. 

That nothing walks with aimless feet ; 
That not one life shall be destroyed, 
Or cast as rubbish to the void, 
When God hath made the pile complete. 

That not a worm is cloven in vain ; 
That not a moth with vain desire 
Is shriveled in a fruitless fire, 
Or but subserves another gain. 

Behold, we know not anything; 
I can but trust that good shall fall, 
At last — far off — at last, to all, 
And every winter change to spring. 

So runs my dream; but what am I? 
An infant crying in the night; 
An infant crying for the light 
And with no language but a cry." 

— Tennyson. 

Men are beginning to realize that "the lost 
piece of money was found." Men are begin- 
ning to understand that "the Good Shepherd 
left the ninety and nine, and went out 'till he 
found the lost sheep/ 5 and brought it home. 
Some years ago a refined young lady left her 
home in New England to go to what was then 
called "the wild and woolly West," Her work 



Looking IBeponD ibis Wiotin 155 

was that of a teacher in a public school. She 
carried a portable organ with her, and after a 
while opened a Sunday School in the district 
school building. Ntot being able to sing, she 
inquired who had a musical voice. One little 
fellow replied: "Wild Mag; but you couldn't 
pull her here with a team of mules." By cross- 
examination the teacher learned the history of 
Maggie. Her mother had left the log cabin 
for the house of many mansions. She was 
companionless, so went onto the mountains to 
tend sheep. The two women met face to face 
one evening when the sheep were crowding 
through the door of the sheep fold, and an in- 
vitation was extended to the Sunday School. 
Maggie asked how the stranger learned of her, 
and said: "Did they say I would join your 
school?" When told what was said, she re- 
plied, "I'll go to spite them." Sankey's 
"Ninety and Nine" was taught her, and the 
cowboys came for miles to hear her sing. At 
last she decided to resume home duties, and 
send a hired man with the sheep. One evening 
the pet lamb did not come home. She went 
out in the gloaming to look for it. On, on, 
she traveled into the night, and at last found 



156 (Bzttntizn Mission or, 

it; but when the darkness deepened she fell 
over a precipice and was found by a searching 
party next morning, unconscious, yet folding 
the lamb to her bosom. As they came near 
they heard her sing, "Out on the mountains, 
wild and bare"; and a little later, by super- 
human effort, she raised herself on her elbow, 
and sang in full voice, "Rejoice, for the Lord 
brings back His own." Is the great Shep- 
herd of men less powerful than Maggie? As 
truly as she kept the lamb from destruction, so 
truly will all souls be delivered from the de- 
vouring flames. Men are beginning to sense 
the fact that "the Prodigal comes home," and 
the father goes out to greet him with a kiss. 
Family circles will not be broken in the place 
where time is no more ; there will be no empty 
chairs. The robe, the ring, the fatted calf, 
the blessing, all for the one who spent his sub- 
stance in riotous living, went to the far coun- 
try, and fain would have filled himself with 
the husks which the swine did eat, and no man 
gave unto him. 

Remember the Prodigal is never too far 
away to get back home. The father and 
mother love will draw him, till he arises and 



Looking OSegonD tfii0 ffilorid 157 

goes to that dearest of all spots, "Home, 
Sweet Home." 

No person is faultless! No life truly sym- 
metrical! No character complete! Certain 
sides of our nature may be splendidly devel- 
oped, certain other sides undeveloped. My 
watch is solid gold, full jewelled, etc., but the 
main spring is broken, and the hair spring is 
weak. Shall I put it under my heel and 
crush it into a shapeless mass, or take it to 
the watch maker? A life is not thrown to 
the brush heap to be burned, simply because it 
has weaknesses. 

Such people are noble and grand in many 
respects, and have intrinsic value. Should 
they come to the close of mortal life, the An- 
gelic teachers will take them into heavenly col- 
leges, or Angelic healers admit them to heav- 
enly hospitals where their weaknesses will be 
exchanged for strength; and the broken life 
welded into more enduring proportions. In 
the hereafter we shall be so changed and glori- 
fied that the weakest and most wicked men 
of the world will be proud of the co-operative 
powers which helped to make them well- 
rounded characters. 



158 <£*tentieti Vision or, 

Judas Iscariot is regarded as the most de- 
praved of mortals, because he sold his teacher 
for sixteen dollars and ninety-six cents. Yet 
the Bible says of his exit from the stage of 
mortal life, "He went to his own place." That 
is perfectly true of every one born of woman. 
That place is the habitation we have made for 
ourselves while passing the milestones of life. 
This does not indicate that we always remain 
just where we start in. 

A boy goes to the first grade in the Gram- 
mar school; it is his place. He will unfold, 
and be promoted, going from grade to grade, 
so that on "Commencement Day" he will al- 
most have forgotten the routine of the earlier 
grades. We begin in spirit life just where 
we leave off here, but we do not remain like 
fixed stars. We grow and climb, yet are 
always in our own place. One of the para- 
bles of the New Testament illustrates the fu- 
ture condition of the wicked dead, or undevel- 
oped lives, better than any single thing in all 
English literature. 

When a young lad was asked by his Sunday 
School superintendent, "What is a parable?" 
he remarked, "An earthly story with an heav- 



Looking IBe^onH tbl* »tiD 159 

enly meaning." We want to present for your 
consideration this earthly story, or parable, 
and shall try to gather from it the heavenly 
meaning: 

"Another parable put he forth unto them, 
saying, 

"The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto 
a man which sowed good seed in his field; 
but while men slept, his enemy came and 
sowed tares among the wheat, and went his 
way. But when the blade was sprung up, and 
brought forth fruit, there appeared the tares 
also. So the servants of the householder came 
and said unto him, 'Sir, didst thou not sow 
good seed in thy field? From whence, then, 
hath it tares?' He said unto them, 'An enemy 
hath done this/ The servants said unto him, 
'Wilt thou, then, that we go and gather them 
up?' But he said, 'Nay; lest while ye gather 
up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with 
them. Let both grow together until the har- 
vest; and in the time of harvest I will say to 
the Angels, "Gather ye together first the tares, 
and bind them in bundles to burn them; but 
gather the wheat into my barn." ' 9i 

Now for the heavenly meaning: 



160 <£stettDeti Vision or, 

"The farmer" represents mankind. 

'The farm" represents the world life. 

'The grain/' the good in each life. 

'The night enemy," the undeveloped spirits. 

"The tares," the wrong things sown in human 
life. 

'The servants," those good mortals who work with 
the principles of righteousness. 

'The Angels," our heavenly ministering spirits. 

"The harvest time," the end of physical life. 

"The bundles," the accumulated product of wrong- 
doing. 

"The fire," that which consumes dross and purifies. 

"The barn," what we call heaven. 

Please note what was not burned : 



"The farmer," which represents mankind. 
"The farm," which represents the world. 
"The grain," the good in each life. 
"The night enemy," for they will yet get on higher 
planes. 

"The servants," the honest humanitarian toilers. 
"The Angels," our ministering spirits. 

None of these burned. Can you find your 
beloved dead in the above list? Can you see 
yourself there? 

"Nothing walks with aimless feet; 

Not one life shall be destroyed, 
Or cast as rubbish to the void, 

When God hath made the pile complete." 



Looking IBeponD tins COorlD 161 

What, then, is to be burned? Nothing but 
tares. The wrong in life, but not life. The bad 
part of the harvest, but not the bad individual. 
Sing it again and again in your soul: "The 
tares for the burning, but the wheat for the 
skies." There is no person so depraved that 
something good has not grown in their life. 
This will be gathered into God's barn, and he 
will sow again under better skies, and with 
better environment; and reap some thirty, 
some sixty, and some one hundred fold. There 
is no person so good, but the Angel of separa- 
tion will gather some bundles of tares out of 
that life for the burning. Angels know how to 
burn tares; it is not their calling to burn indi- 
viduals. Now will you be comforted? This 
truth is big with consolation. The greater 
part of the human family is taken into the 
summer land when there has been no time nor 
disposition to make preparation. They have 
said, "One world at a time." The strenuous 
energies have been fully occupied with busi- 
ness, pleasure, preparation to live here, or 
something else, and death comes upon them 
like a thief in the night. Many have slept and 
are sleeping to their best interests; such are 



162 <£sten&eD Vision or, 

adding to the bundles of tares, and piling up 
work for the angels of fire. How many bun- 
dles of tares will they bind from our living? 
Let no person feel that because there is no 
destruction of the individual, one has the 
license to sow tares, for, "Whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap." 

Wheat is better than tares in this or any 
other world! Seek to swell God's barn. You 
will meet the loved ones again and they will 
say, "Only the tares were burned, but I wish 
there had been a larger percentage of wheat." 

Watch your moral farm, and produce a har- 
vest which you will be proud to exhibit in the 
larger field just over the fence of Time. 

SONG AND SERVICE. 

Oh may I join the choir invisible 

Of those immortal dead who live again 

In minds made better by their presence : live 

In pulses stirred to generosity, 

In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn 

For miserable aims that end with self, 

In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, 

And with their mild persistence urge man's search 

To vaster issues, — so to live is heaven : 

To make undying music in the world, 

Breathing as beauteous order, that controls 

With growing sway the growing life of man. 



Hookim IBeponD tbi* ftftorlD 163 

. . . This is life to come, 
Which martyred men have made more glorious 
For us who strive to follow. May I reach 
That purest heaven ; be to other souls 
The cup of strength in some great agony ; 
Enkindle generous ardor; feed pure love; 
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty ; ; 
But the sweet presence of a good diffused, 
And in diffusion ever more intense. 
So shall I join the choir invisible, 
Whose music is the gladness of the world. 

— George Eliot 



CHAPTER XIV, 

EMPLOYMENT OF IMMORTALS 

Col. Robert G. Ingersoll did not seem to 
think there would be much satisfaction in a 
heaven described by many well-thinking peo- 
ple. He asked to be excused from "sitting on 
the damp side of a cloud, and playing a harp 
through all eternity." We may be sure much 
teaching along this line is born of ignorance; 
there will be no monotony beyond the stars. 
We will not be called upon to do any distaste- 
ful thing. 

Much of the drudgery of this life is caused 
by one's being out of their legitimate channel. 
There would be more of heaven, here and now, 
had parents taken their children to a Scientific 
Phrenologist in the morning of their lives, and 
then shaped their education, and employment, 
by the instruction received. One is pressed 
into an office, store, mill, or factory, simply 

165 



166 attended Vision ot, 

because a few dollars will come into the home ; 
and with no thought of the fitness of the per- 
son for the position. Young America then 
takes up the chase for money, not knowing he 
is starting, will continue, and end the race in 
shackles. The most of them, like Hon. Ndl 
Dowe's mule, do not reach the prize. They, 
like the quadruped, are not intelligent pur- 
suers. This mule was balky, as most mules 
and men are; everything young Dowe could 
think of to start him, and keep him going, 
failed. His father came into the field, and 
hearing of the situation, lashed a cabbage over 
the animal's head, between his ears and just in 
front of his eyes; all day long he ploughed, 
yet when night came he was no nearer the cab- 
bage than at noon. So in the furrows of life, 
men go in a wild pull for that which they never 
overtake. Let the failures of the past be a les- 
son to the parents of our day, thus they will 
have their boys and girls placed in the more 
promising positions. 

In the immortal life our fitness for servioe 
will be taken into account, so we will work 
without friction ; and with a larger measure of 
success. Those who were intensely busy here, 



Looking OBeponD tm »tlD 167 

could not be happy in being everlastingly idle 
in the great hereafter. Roosevelt would chafe 
terribly, were he obliged to look pious, and 
keep still ; and even our dear old mothers, who 
could not spend a few minutes in the rocking 
chair without knitting needles, or fancy work, 
would be ill at ease in a future state of inertia. 
"To every man his work," will be one of 
the melodious sounds of heaven. The pleas- 
ure of it all will be, "his work," not another's. 
It is not true that we will, necessarily, con- 
tinue in the same employment which may have 
been thrust upon us in the lowlands of Time. 
Many professions, trades, and even business 
callings, are of the earth, earthy; these will 
pass away. There must be a re-adjustment of 
work, and workers. Experienced leaders on 
the Other Side will know just how to accom- 
plish this to the satisfaction of all. How often 
something akin to this has taken place in our 
world. Some mechanical device has been in- 
stalled which throws thousands of men out of 
jemployment; and they come to know that 
such a closed door often leads into an open 
one, which is vastly more desirable. They 
come to see that they have been but developing 



168 CstenOeD Vision or, 

in old lines, that which would open a better 
doorway of opportunity. Many needed voca- 
tions in this coma of life will cause individuals 
so employed to look for better things here- 
after. The undertaker will not be in evidence 
there. He may influence men of his craft in 
the earth-life, so they will make things easier 
for bereaved families. His robing for the 
grave will have ended when some one wraps 
him in a shroud. On the other side, with the 
touch of pity, the tread of quietness, the eye of 
gentleness, the heart of sympathy, and the 
soul of repose, he will find the lessons of re- 
finement taken on here will serve him nicely 
for the larger life there. The grave-digger 
will also be promoted. No longer will we asso- 
ciate him with the familiar lines of the poet: 

"Nigh to a grave that was newly made, 
Leaned a sexton old, on his earth-worn spade; 
His work was done, and he paused to wait, 
The funeral train through the open gate. 
A relic of by-gone days was he, 
And his locks were white as the foaming sea. 
And these words came from his lips so thin, 
"I gather them in ! I gather them in !" 

Many things begun in these low-lands will 
be carried on hereafter, if the ones who did 



Hooking TSeponD tins »>tlD 169 

them were fitted by Nature and education for 
the doing; they will then go on along the same 
lines, with greater success than they ever 
dreamed of here. Artists may sketch under 
better climes, and in better conditions, going 
from world to world, when the brain has be- 
come too tired to hold the pencil or brush 
here. 

We will take up the studies of our unbroken 
life, and carry them on to completion, finding 
that no threads are broken in this continuous 
strand which has half of its loop here; and 
the other in the life which is to be. 

Educators of every type will find their work 
waiting — Thomas Paine, Theodore Parker, 
Phillips Brooks, Henry Ward Beecher, Will- 
iam E. Gladstone, Victor Hugo, Abraham 
Lincoln; and more than tongue can name; the 
workers qualified, and the work desirable. 
Some will invent new things, which will be 
used in the earth by those who are able to 
pick them up in waking or sleeping reveries; 
and, doubtless, many inhabited planets beside 
our own will utilize that which will come from 
the fertile inventive genius of Franklin, Ful- 
ton, Crooks, Edison, Marconi, De Forest, and 



170 <B z 1 1 n e D ^ i i o tt or, 

others. New songs will be put into the heart 
and on the lips of those clothed with mortality 
and immortality, till one day, in the far-out fu- 
ture, all mankind, in all worlds, all angelic 
beings in the universe, all animals (including 
everything which hath breath), will sing the 
same glad song. An artist in instrumental 
music will conduct an orchestra of nature to 
enhance the beauty of the song. The great 
discoveries in harmonies, together with the 
great conductors, will utilize all instruments 
now in vogue, bring out new ones, and so ap- 
propriate nature, that the leaves of the trees 
will clap their hands, the streams trickling to 
the sea will play beautiful cadenzas, and the 
ocean will come in on the mighty bass ; sounds 
we have heard, together with those we have 
considered inharmonious, will be caught up as 
the mighty musicians move toward a climax; 
and you and I will thumb a string in that 
grand orchestra, or sing in the triumphant vi- 
brations. Under Theodore Thomas, Walter 
Damrosch, Victor Herbert, Sousa, and con- 
ductors of grand opera, the musical possibili- 
ties will be unlimited. The mind of the poet 
will be inspired to beautiful strains of thought, 



Looking IBeponD tfjfsf SOotID 171 

by which the world may read themselves into 
f orgetf ulness ; and their cares and troubles be 
wafted away, and pass into beautiful dreams. 
Browning, Bryant, Byron, Cary, Cowper, 
Dickens, Elliot, Emerson, Holmes, Harte, 
Longfellow, Lowell, Moore, Poe, Riley, Scott, 
Tennyson, Whittier, Whitman, Wilcox — 
these, and others, which would make an army 
of writers in prose and poetry, have not had 
their last or best thought. We shall hear 
from them in the future, and derive new bless- 
ings from their gifts. 

Dramatic Art will be taken up with greater 
satisfaction to the artist and auditor — every- 
thing from tragedy to comedy — Forrest, 
Booth, Barrett, McCullough, Irving, Mans- 
field, Drew, Belasco, Mann, down to Cohan, 
Nat Wills, et al., will be heard. A new play 
will be written and placed on the boards. 
Tens of millions will see it, and thousands will 
take part in it. The booking will be the larg- 
est ever known to the profession. It will be 
called, "Reminiscences from Earth-Life." Ac- 
tors, great and small, will perform, and there 
will be blended into one great entertainment 
everything from Shakespeare to vaudeville, as 



172 (Bitttintn Vision or, 

earth conditions are depicted. Apply for tick- 
ets early. 

The future life will confine ctiy and coun- 
try, so each may revel in that which is most 
to their taste. Under Burbanks the farmer 
may learn more than he ever dreamed of on 
the old homestead; and all nature will bud 
and blossom as the rose. 

Barnum & Bailey will not only have the 
greatest show on earth, but the greatest in the 
skies. Under their control the lovers of ani- 
mals will come in magnetic harmony with bi- 
peds and quadrupeds, and teach them, and us, 
a lesson of trust and helpfulness; so the lion 
and lamb may lie down together, and a little 
child lead them. Then nothing will hurt or 
destroy in all the universe. We will find them 
possessed of souls, and they will find us soul- 
ful enough to pet, but not destroy. 

Great physicians and nurses will be there 
to extend a helping hand to people on both 
sides of life. Prevention will be the predomi- 
nant note there, and not cure. They will teach 
the doctors of earth to so watch over homes 
that disease will not come. They will teach 
the people here to pay the skilled practitioner 



Looking IBeponD tbi$ »>riti 173 

to keep them well, rather than take the pain- 
ful path back to health. The narrow limits 
of this book cannot even suggest in any ex- 
haustive way the accomplishments of men and 
women which will be transferred to the higher 
realms, or to new positions into which they 
will be inducted, iYou may be able to look 
into your own vocation and answer the ques- 
tion whether or not it is worthy to be extended 
to the life which is to be ; and, if so, if you are 
the right person to carry it on. Know thou 
that if your calling is dropped forever when 
divested of the flesh, it has helped to fit you 
for a better one; and if you are out of your 
real work, even this will be revealed to you, 
and a Master-hand will place you where all 
will be harmonious. 

One of the most beautiful services which 
can be rendered from beyond the border line, 
is that of sounding the knell of the departing 
souls of earth, and with outstretched arms re- 
receiving them into spirit spheres. To whis- 
per into the ear the first word to a new-born 
life must be joy to the full; to conduct one, 
to their spirit home must be much more de- 
sirable employment than to guide people 



174 CstentuD Vision or, 

over the snows of centuries to the heights of 
the Alps. How delighted the Switzerland 
guide will be to lay down the cold duties of 
earth, and be a guide into the peaks of a 
country which is yet to be fully discovered. 
Such guides will help the care-worn stranger 
out of the land of care. They will breathe 
words of comfort and enlightenment into the 
neglected soul. They will assist in preparing 
homes for those who have neglected this privi- 
lege while in earth-life. The aged and the 
children, the rich and the poor, the learned 
and the unlearned, the white and the black, 
the Christian and the so-called heathen, the 
Minister and the Priest, the Lawver and the 
Doctor, the Spiritualist and the Materialist, 
the Quaker and the Salvationist — how could 
they find their new home in the new country, 
did not some one lead them who had been over 
the way before. Even the beggar at the pal- 
ace must have been cheered, when they came 
for him as he was 



"Sitting by the gateway of a palace fair, 
There this child of earth was left to die; 

By the world neglected, wealth would nothing share, 
See the change awaiting there on high. 



Hooking IBegonD tfcte ft&orlD 175 

Carried by the angels to the Land of Rest, 
Music sweetly sounding through the air ; 

Welcomed by his loved ones to a heavenly feast, 
Gathered with his friends in Paradise. 

What will be the ending of this life of care? 

Oft the question cometh to us all ; 
There upon the pathway, hard the burdens bear, 

And the burning tears of sorrow fall. 

Taken by the angels to the Land of Rest, 

Music sweetly sounding in the sky; 
Welcomed by our loved ones to heaven's very best, 

We shall meet them in the bye and bye. 

These are only suggestions of the work of 
the immortal world. "Eye hath not seen, ear 
hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the 
heart of man, the things prepared," for those 
who "Going forth and weeping bearing prec- 
ious seed, shall doubtless return with rejoicing 
bringing their sheaves with them." 



THE OLD MAN'S FUNERAL. 

I saw an aged man upon his bier ; 

His hair was thin and white, and on his brow 
A record of the cares of many a year, — 

Cares that were ended and forgotten now. 
And there was sadness 'round, and faces bowed, 
And woman's tears fell fast, and children wailed 
aloud. 



176 (EstettfteH 9f0fon or. 

Then rose another hoary man, and said, 
In faltering accents to the weeping train: 

"Why mourn ye that our aged friend is dead? 
Ye are not sad to see the gathered grain, 

Nor when their mellow fruit the orchards cast, 

Nor when the yellow woods let fall the ripened mast. 

"Ye sigh not when the sun, his course fulfilled, — 
His glorious course, rejoicing earth and sky, — 

In the soft evening, when the winds are stilled, 
Sinks where his islands of refreshment lie, 

And leaves the smile of his departure spread 

O'er the warm-colored heaven and ruddy mountain- 
head. 

"Why weep ye then for him, who, having won 
The bound of man's appointed years, at least, 

Life's blessings all enjoyed, life's labors done, 
Serenely to his final rest has passed ; 

While the soft memory of his virtues yet 

Lingers, like twilight hues when the bright sun is set? 

"His youth was innocent ; his riper age 

Marked with some act of goodness every day; 

And, watched by eyes that loved him, calm and sage, 
Faded his late declining years away: 

Meekly he gave his being up, and went 

To share the holy rest that waits a life well spent. 

"That life was happy : every day he gave 
Thanks for the fair existence that was his; 

For a sick fancy made him not her slave, 
To mock him with her phantom miseries ; 

Nor chronic tortures racked his aged limb, 

For luxury and sloth had nourished none for him. 



Looking 05eponD tfcfj* ^otlD 177 

"And I am glad that he has lived thus long, 
And glad that he has gone to his reward ; 

Nor can I deem that nature did him wrong, 
Softly to disengage the vital cord; 

For, when his hand grew palsied, and his eye 

Dark with the mists of age, it was his time to die." 

— Bryant. 



CHAPTER XV 

NO FATHER ON EARTH 

There is a passage of scripture in the "New 
Testament" which reads, "Call no man your 
Father upon the earth, for one is your Father 
which is in Heaven." Years have passed since 
some of us have had the privilege of calling 
any one "Father." Even when our paternal 
ancestor was in the form, many of us spoke 
to him without using the term, feeling that 
"Papa," "Pa," or "Pop," were little more en- 
dearing terms than the more stately one. To 
call a priest "father," would be to us almost a 
sacrilegious act. To think we have a Father 
in Heaven is a comforting knowledge, and in- 
stinctively we used to approach him while in 
this life. Father-love has not been sung by 
poets, and preached upon by ministers, as 
mother-love has been embellished. There are 
many reasons for this, chief among the num- 

179 



180 (Btttntitti IN 01 on or, 

ber being the fact that the father is the 
bread-winner, and at the office, store, mill, or 
factory, much of the time; thus seeing less of 
the growing children than the mother. He 
goes to business before they arise in the morn- 
ing, and they retire directly after the evening 
dinner, so we fear the time may come when 
the father may need an introduction to his 
own offspring. 

Another reason why he is not named in 
poesy, is he is generally the positive pole in 
the home, while the mother is the negative. At 
times he may seem austere, or even autocratic; 
this is only in the seeming. The road to the 
father-heart is not as open as the one to moth- 
er's. It is frequently overgrown, and not get- 
ting into the interior of his nature, we mis- 
judge and misunderstand, because looking on 
outward appearance. 

A very deep love, and a real valuable com- 
panionship may be found in father, if you 
mine far enough down to strike the gold. 
Coming in contact with grasping and dishon- 
est business men, day after day, one gets cold 
on the exterior, and feels he must be guarded, 
and be ever on the defensive. This artificial 



Hooking TSeponti tins ftOotiD 181 

self becomes second nature so it is not thrown 
off in the home-circle, hence people are apt 
to feel that father is unapproachable. 

Another condition which makes it difficult 
for a man to relax is the constant dread of 
being thrown down in business, and on ac- 
count of keen competition being obliged to 
curtail expenses at home, and perhaps even 
drop the life-insurance. Few, very few, un- 
derstand the burdens of one who stands at 
the head of a home, having ideals along lines 
of education, home-surroundings, etc., and be- 
ing unable to do as other men do in their 
families. These conditions make men secre- 
tive, grave, and sedate. 

The best time to understand a father is the 
hour when father's heart in its richness and 
glory is revealed, when the burdens of active 
business-life are laid to one side; and he sits 
in the gloaming together with his wife and 
adult children around the fireside. Then, the 
mellow age of father is like husking-time in 
the autumn. The sun may be in the West, 
and the days growing shorter, but the "Fod- 
der's in the Shock." A beautiful woman said 
to the author one day: "You have written 



182 CEtenDeD Vision ot, 

some lovely mother-hymns, and I like to sing 
them ; but I had a noble father, can't you give 
us some lines along that line?" In a few Sun- 
days we sang the father-hymn, and every time 
it was used until her transition, she would look 
up and smile. 

When lovely angels accord me the place 
Which I am earning by running life's race ; 
I'll forget all when I see Father's face ; 
This through the ages will satisfy me. 
Just to be near the dear ones I adore, 
Will through the ages just satisfy me. 

Friends will be there I have loved long ago, 
Joy like a river will then overflow; 
Yet just a smile from my parents I know, 
Will through the ages just satisfy me. 
Just to be near the dear ones I adore, 
Will through the ages just satisfy me. 

The first memory of my life was associated 
with father. His words, his acts, made the 
initial impression on my boy nature. It was 
near the close of the Civil War, I only a baby- 
boy, and the first male stranger to come to 
the home. Father was about to leave for the 
Southland, for those years were spent by him 
in carrying supplies to the "commissary de- 
partment" for the boys in blue. He took me 



Looking IBeponO tftfff Wioiin 183 

on his knee, read to me out of the Bible, and 
of psychic happenings connected with the life 
of Elijah, It struck me as the sweetest story 
ever told. When he kissed me, asked me to 
be good, and started for the wharf where he 
was to board the vessel, my little heart almost 
broke. I cried with frantic cries, asking when 
he would return and tell me more stories. 
That was the first memory-chapter of my life. 
There is another memory-chapter there, which 
has fastened itself to my being, never to be 
erased. He was an old man, hair white for 
the crowning, whiter than snow. He was in 
my home, then, and my bed. He held my 
hand and stroked my face, as he was about to 
cut loose from the shores of Time. He said, 
"The boatman is coming to carry me over; 
but I must leave my fleshly garment on this 
side." The messages which followed, as mother 
and brother were watching the outgoing tide, 
were then, and have ever since been, sweet to 
my soul. The first memory-lesson about 
spirit-conditions, connected with Elijah — the 
last memory-lesson, spirit-conditions connected 
with himself. O! that these dear men were 
more fully understood in and outside the home 



184 (Btttnhtt* Vision or, 

circle! Because they are strong and positive 
forces they have enemies. Every man of in- 
itiative and energy lives in an enemy's land. 

Mothers in the quiet home-life can afford 
to be neutral on the most of subjects which 
are calculated to irritate, and so are the more 
easily loved. Fathers must be outspoken in 
business, in politics, and, sometimes, in re- 
ligion, and so engender strife. A manly man 
is known by the enemies he makes, quite as 
much as by the friends he keeps. A man 
without any vices is what an old sea captain 
called "a one hundred per cent, individual." 
Such men were our fathers. They are not too 
plentiful in the rising generation. Such men 
were true to every trust, their word as good 
as their bond, loyal to the right, polite to 
strangers, moderate in their eating and drink- 
ing, not listening for insult, or looking for 
slights, cautious, yet courageous. Such men 
differ in ability, yet they are always safe per- 
sons to deal with, whether in business for 
themselves or doing business for others. These 
men do not always observe fashion in matters 
of dress, like the masses; they are usually a 
law unto themselves. They are more inter- 



Hooking IBt^onn this MJotlD 185 

ested in doing their work than caring what 
men say about it, or about them. Such men 
were brought up from early youth to make 
themselves useful, and to economize in both 
time and money. Our father was bound out 
to learn a trade, and was taught the antique 
ideas, that the boy should work for his parents 
until the day of his majority. The youth of 
our day feel they were foreordained to be 
fashion-plates, Atlantic City boardwalk dudes, 
Chestnut Street sports ; and they have gotten 
it into their heads that their parents must 
toil and save for them. Because of this, we 
have a race of weaklings coming on the stage 
of action. Every son born with the notion 
that he is here for the delectation of the social 
set, is an unsafe individual, no matter how 
long an ancestral line he may have, or how 
large an estate. One who lives on the honors 
of the past, or hoarded money, is not worth 
the name of man, and should not be a father. 
The good father, unconsciously, exhibits his 
virtues when those about him are in suffering, 
or the angel of death has despoiled their 
homes. When a poor boy died who had been 
in the Union Army until consumption claimed 



186 CstettDeD tyi$ ion or, 

his frail body, it was father's silk flag which 
formed his winding-sheet. When a poor Ger- 
man woman was left with a large number of 
children (she not being able to understand 
much of our tongue), it was father who went 
in and directed her affairs so she was not 
wronged by dishonest people. When a horse 
killed an Irishman, and his wife was left with- 
out children or advisor, it was father who 
straightened out affairs for her. When scar- 
let fever spread like wild fire through the 
town, it was father who played the part of 
the good Samaritan. When the dead needed 
to be kept for funeral-day, before the time of 
modern embalming, it was father who sat up 
through the long watches of the night. When 
the minister was not pleasing his flock, and 
they were praising him to his face and curs- 
ing him to his back, it was father who had to 
carry the "thorn bush" to the parsonage. 
When a poor man's child died, whose body 
would have gone to the "Potter's Field," it 
was father who said, "Bury him in my lot 
without money and without price." Never ap- 
preciated here — save by a very few — never 



Looking TStyonn this ft&orlD 187 

fully known here by the masses, he is being 
understood and appreciated in the place where 
no one loses his reward; even if he does so 
little as to give a cup of cold water to one who 
is weary in the way, and of the way. 

When the time came to exchange worlds, 
he was like a shock of corn, fully ripe. Struck 
through with a fatal disease, which made 
havoc of the noble frame in five days, he knew 
from the start that no illness would follow 
that one. He talked calmly and lovingly about 
the journey, as a friend would speak of a trip 
to another continent. He told the writer he 
would return and aid him in the battle of life, 
if permitted so to do. He spoke of how won- 
derfully the preachers could teach were they 
but to see what he had already seen of the 
spiritual. As the angels, again and again drew 
the curtains aside to give him a vision of the 
summer land, he would describe them to us. 
He told of the spiritual bodies present in the 
room, of those whom he had known and loved 
in the flesh. His exit out of this world was a 
much happier experience than his entrance. 
He met the demand of death, as willingly, as 



188 attended Vision or, 

manfully, and as calmly as he had ever met 
a creditor, and was as fully prepared to settle 
accounts. 

It is only just to fatherhood to say that 
some have seemed to live in another realm 
while tabernacling among men, their families, 
and their fellows; because in the morning of 
life they were placed on the wrong commer- 
cial road from which they never extricated 
themselves. 

The old plan which compelled a boy to 
work out his own salvation with fear and 
trembling, and help his parents as he worked, 
was a good one, providing a square plug was 
not put into a round hole. Pity yet swells 
up in our souls when we remember our father 
was never on the right industrial track in life. 
Could any one have studied that massive 
brow, known the lofty aspirations of that no- 
ble brain, understood that regal contour of 
forehead, noted the stately bearing, they 
would have suffered with him, for he knew 
his business life was out of joint with his 
physical, mental, and moral talents, and was 
deeply pained by this discovery, but only men- 
tioned it to receptive ears and loyal hearts. 



Hooking IBegonD this MJotlD 189 

All hail to our noble fathers! Angels will 
speak of their sterling qualities if poets for- 
get to do so. Cherubim and Seraphim will 
sing their praises, even though no earthly 
note declares their grandeur. Fathers of our 
nation! Bulwarks of our home! Priests of 
their children! Examples to grandchildren! 
We send far over the waves of time our ex- 
pressions of love. We assumed the places of 
trust you imposed upon us, with fidelity, and 
report — finis. We send you a soul-kiss, which 
we trust will remain on your spiritual lips un- 
til we fall on your neck; where the wicked 
cease from troubling and the weary are at 
rest. 

THE SPIRIT'S FAREWELL. 

Rest, tired clay; I've done with thee. 
How long I've worn thee as the captive 
Wears the dragging chain, that fetters 
Him to earth. What pains and weakness 
Have we known together, what strife, 
What weariness, what sad impotency. 
Yet thou hast served me well — hast 
Been a willing slave to taskmaster stern, 
Who no pity showed to thee ; for oft, when 
E'en existence was a battle, did this 
Same eager, tireless spirit gird thee on 
To yet greater effort and endeavor. 



190 € * t e n D e D Vision or 

Handful of dust, once vitalized! 
Thou oft hast longed for the embrace 
Of the bridegroom, Death, hast thought 
It would be sweet to lie down in 
His restful arms ; thou f eelest them now, 
Rest in thy bridal bed, from whence 
No morrow wakes to toil, no restless 
Spirit goads thee to action, evermore. 

O, friends, dear friends, all and each, 
Why look ye on this worn out frame 
That cannot give the love ye crave? 
Its passing set me free, rejoice in this, 
Its poor mortal eyes and ears no longer 
Veil from me sweet sights and sounds. 
I see you all — I sense your love — I know 
O, Father — now I know and thank Thee, 
For Thy greatest gift — blest immortality. 

Anon. 



Hooking 15eponD tins »itHi 191 



CHAPTER XVI 

OUR MOTHER WHICH ART IN HEAVEN 

Earth has never been quite the same since 
mother joined the innumerable caravan 
"which moves to that mysterious realm where 
each shall take his chamber in the silent halls 
of Death." She did not go like "the quarry- 
slave at night, scourged to his dungeon"; but, 
"sustained and soothed by an unfaltering 
trust," approached her grave like one who 
"wraps the drapery of her couch about her, 
and lies down to pleasant dreams." Though 
Bryant's song was true, in her case, we miss 
the physical presence of our loved one; and 
the years only add to the suffering. 

It is difficult to think of the breaking down 
of the body — especially that of the aged — with- 
out associating it with the dismantling of a 
ship or the razing of a house. The proud ship 
which once had polished masts, white sails. 



192 CstenDeD Vision or, 

clean keel, strong anchor, good rudder, accu- 
rate compass, and a trusty pilot, is now 
bleaching on the rock-bound shore. All things 
of value have been removed; and the hull is 
breaking up. A reminder of Life in its prime 
and at its close. 

Riding through a rural district, one will 
notice a standing chimney at the cross-roads. 
The house all gone; and the bright family that 
once gathered around the board on that sacred 
spot, nowhere to be seen. Nb doubt scattered 
like the building! What a silent messenger 
of mortal life! 

It almost breaks one's heart to ride, for a 
day, in a touring car, and notice the archi- 
tectural wrecks scattered along the way! 
When one turns from these, he often faces 
the "City of the Dead" — its white spires 
standing like ghostly sentinels, saying: "You, 
too, must die!" and its green mounds pro- 
claiming the fact that more ground waits to 
be fertilized. On every hand we notice in 
wood, brick, marble, granite — yea, even in hay 
and stubble — the signs of old age and passing 
away. "All is vanity," saith the preacher. 
The work of man and of nature not only 



Hooking OBeponD this KlorlD 193 

cause sad memories, but emotions too sad for 
tears. The frame house, the ship by the sea, 
the structure in brick, marble, or granite — 
these and ten thousand other things, remind 
us of the breaking up of the physical body of 
a mother; and the final abandonment of that 
which was so precious to us. More articles in 
prose, more poetry, more hymns, have been 
written on "Mother" than upon any other 
member of the household. But, with all this, 
no one has ever reached the depth of human 
love, or been able to assuage human grief. 
The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes has 
touched upon some rich chords in human life ; 
as in his unique imagery he sounds the note 
of human dissolution. We shall use herein 
some of the phrases; as there is nothing so 
well calculated to develop the picture of your 
mother or of mine. A gathering tempest is 
depicted, showing Old Age at its mercy. I 
am sure you will see the wreckers at work as 
the storm becomes more and more tempestu- 
ous; and, before the last act, will notice it is 
a craft in which you have peculiar interest. 
He writes of "Evil Days" coming. These 
havei reference to the grievances and incon- 



194 CstenDeD IN i o n or, 

veniences of Old Age. These days are many 
— how many! Only those who try to endure 
the storm may realize! There, truly a day is 
a thousand years. The one who is called off 
from business or pleasure to everlasting rest, 
may not pass through this distressing experi- 
ence if he is snuffed out like a candle. His 
friends will not, under such circumstances, 
have a long watch and wait for the earthly 
tent-dwelling to come down. Such going is 
like the quick collapse of a building, or the 
sudden swamping of a ship which passes in 
a night To one who passes out by Nature's 
usual method, the "evil days" are double in 
fury. First, to the one who is torn down. 
Second, to the one who must stand helplessly 
by and witness it. Relatives living at a dis- 
tance do not see each human block knocked 
out, nor suffer as they would under such cir- 
cumstances. It comes to them like a sudden 
catastrophe. 

The Man of Wisdom notices signs of decay 
next, in that they lose grip and interest in 
the present. "The years when I have no pleas- 
ure in them." The pleasures of the young 
are in the Present. Not so, the pilgrims of 



Looking ISeponD thi* MJorlD 195 

the night! They live in the Past! The hands 
on the clock of Time point far back to other 
scenes. They speak of "how we used to do." 
"They cannot sing the old songs," yet they 
were better than the new. To them the good 
days are past days. No friends like the old 
friends — no home like the old home — no re- 
ligion like the old religion! Harbingers of 
the breaking up of the old barque, are these! 
Listen and remember the outcome! Second 
childhood leads to everlasting youth! 

Solomon makes another observation — this 
time he cries: "The keepers of the house 
tremble!" The hands and the arms are ap- 
propriately called "the keepers of the house"; 
for with them the human family arms and 
guards the body in various ways. The shak- 
ing and palsy of the limbs of old people are 
thus graphically described. They would be 
one of the first symptoms discerned by an ob- 
server. We call to mind one who desired to 
sit at the head of the table and serve — even 
when the hand trembled so that the things 
they tried to put upon the plates sometimes 
landed on the table-linen. The unsteady hand 
on the written page; the vibrations felt when 



196 (Bttzntitti Vision or, 

shaking hands ; the crooked seams in the gar- 
ment — these, and many more things, show 
that the mortal building rests in an insecure 
way upon its foundation. 

As the storm gathers power, the Oriental 
observer notices that the ' 'strong men bow 
themselves." The men of power referred to 
here are "the legs or the bones." In the song 
they are like pillars of marble. With age they 
become weak, slack, and bent. When they 
stoop, and drag the feet heavily; when the 
waist-measure shortens; w T hen the shoulders 
become round; when the body sags on the 
legs ; when the steps are slow and careful, you 
may be sure that the heavy hammer of Time 
is helping to break the last fastening, and the 
weary feet will soon rest. When the writer 
saw this development he was led to pen the 
poem, which is scattered through the chapter, 
beginning : 

"Rest the tired feet, now forever, 

Dear wrinkled hands are so still; 
Blasts of the earth shall no longer 

Throw o'er our loved one a chill! 
Angels thro' heaven will guide her ; 

Loved ones will comfort and keep ; 
Not for the world would we wake her — 

Mother has fallen asleep !" 



Looking 15tytmU t{n'0 MJotlD 197 

Taking another look upon his mother, the 
Eastern king said: "The grinders cease be- 
cause they are few; and the doors are shut 
in the streets when the sound of the grinding 
is low!" Now, he is looking into the face of 
the one that gave him birth, and makes an- 
other discovery which is an indication of the 
inevitable. In youth the teeth are strong; 
and upper and lower jaw have a full set. 
When the breaking-up period comes, "grinder 
after grinder" disappears. The mouth of Old 
Age comes to look like the mouth of Baby- 
hood. When the teeth cease to masticate — 
and instead of the crunching and fletcherizing 
of food, nothing is heard but a munching and 
sucking — the sound of the grinding is low. 
The falling in of the mouth, the toothless 
gums, is represented as "the doors shut in the 
street." If artificial means are used to hide 
these signs, back of the best work of the col- 
lege, Nature goes on with destruction. A look 
at the mouth of Mother usually reveals the 
lesson, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt 
thou return!" Looking upward, the poet and 
scribe noticed the eyes. Here, too, he ob- 
served the work of the despoiler. The win- 



198 (Bztzntizti Vision or, 

dows of the soul are a sure tell-tale: the cam- 
era of the intellect leaves a picture while tak- 
ing one. Taking up his pen, he writes: 
"Those that look out of the windows are dark- 
ened!" Call to mind the first time you saw 
mother with a golden bridge over the nose; 
and ask yourself the question: "Did I under- 
stand the lesson?" Remember how she 
changed from eye-glasses to spectacles; from 
one lens to a bi-focal; and from one glass to 
others that would magnify more powerfully. 
Get out the old glasses, now, and look through 
them; and you will grasp the lesson of other 
days. This failing of the vision tells that the 
dear one is near the threshold of the grave. 

"Mother was tired and weary — 

Weary with toil and with pain ; 
Put by her glasses and rocker, 

She will not need them again ! 
Into Heaven's Mansion she entered 

Never to sigh or to weep ; 
After long years with life's struggle, 

Mother has fallen asleep !" 

The next picture gives us the result of his 
findings after the mantle of night has been 
let down upon the earth. Hardly seems to 
him as though his first sleep was over when 



Looking IBeponD tins KJotiD 199 

he hears footsteps on the stairs, and an early 
bird-song. Another note is made by Solo- 
mon in these words: "They shall rise up at 
the voice of the bird!" 

As the physical powers wane, the schedule 
for waking and sleeping is changed. When 
young people are playing with the night, and 
sleeping late in the morning, Mother is apt to 
say: "Early to bed and early to rise, makes 
a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." At the 
tea-table she begins to yawn, even if she had 
a nap after lunch ; and, in a short time, is off 
in Dreamland. The day was so very long she 
hopes to sleep till morning — but midnight 
finds her twisting and turning, and wonder- 
ing if morning will ever come. The bed 
which seemed so inviting in the early even- 
ing, seems hard and hot, now; and she thinks: 
"O that I had wings like a dove, for then I 
would fly away and be at rest!" Ah! These 
risings and retirings are but precursors of the 
long and narrow bed! 



"Near other loved ones we laid her, 
Low in the churchyard to lie; 

And tho' our hearts are most broken 
Yet we would not question why ? 



200 <&ztznUtb Vision or, 

She does not rest 'neath the grasses, 
Tho' o'er her dear grave they creep — 

She has gone home with the angels — 
Mother has fallen asleep." 

The close kingly observer, still watching 
the change in mother, sees how carefully she 
steps; and so adds to his delineation of old 
age words which almost make our heart pause 
in fear, as we wonder if harm will come to 
her. He writes: "They are afraid of that 
which is high; and fears shall be in the way/' 
Elevators in department stores, stairs in the 
home, steps on a street-car, slippery pavements 
— so many, many things are but the index- 
finger of approaching age. Shortness of 
breath, asthmatic tendencies, failure of muscu- 
lar power, difficulty in mounting an ascent, all 
tell their story. Going on the appointed road, 
all kinds of fears are in the way. Fears for 
themselves, fears for their children, fears in 
this life, fears in passing to another plane! 
Fears are not an indication of faulty charac- 
ter in the aged; rather the outworking of care- 
fulness by sensitive souls. A very good man, 
who had spent his life in service for his fel- 
lows, and worship of the most lofty type, came 



JLoobing IBegonD ibi* »rlD 201 

to his earthly end distressed with the fear of 
eternal shipwreck. A highly organized per- 
son sensitized to the finer vibrations is more 
likely to have fears than a coarse, unrefined 
person. 

We recall with the deepest emotion a pa- 
thetic scene connected with the transition of 
our mother. No more gentle soul ever lived, 
no more harmless person ever walked the old 
earth, no more self-sacrificing person ever 
dwelt in flesh, no more lovely and lovable 
spirit ever tabernacled in clay — yet "fears 
were in the way." Fears which caused that 
frail body to grieve, and the hot tears to run 
down like rain. She thought a trusted serv- 
ant and house-keeper had gone away to ar- 
range to have her buried alive. The servant 
was, all this time, in the house; and would 
have given her all to have helped that sweet, 
timid soul. Words would fail to tell how, with 
abnormal strength, she worked herself to the 
edge of the bed, threw her arms around the 
neck of a son; and pleaded with mighty cry- 
ing for him not to permit that faithful serv- 
ant to bury her alive. We had shared her 
sorrows and tried to soothe her pain for 



202 dtettDeU 9i0fon or, 

years; but this scene almost overwhelmed us. 
With what tenderness and assurance we tried 
to comfort her and drive away the fears! 
Calling the house-keeper from her work, we 
showed the darling mother that she was with 
us, and caring for us even then. In her arms, 
mother sobbed out her fears and told of her 
agony. Lifting her gently, and placing her 
in the bed, we kissed away the tears, and she 
fell asleep from sheer exhaustion. We fer- 
vently hoped her fears would be forgotten, 
and sweet dreams take their place. However, 
in a few moments, she was startled, and fears 
upon fears seemed to lash her frail bark — as 
the mad ocean sometimes whips the disman- 
tled wreck. We lived an eternity in those 
hours ; and she — dear, sweet soul ! — must have 
suffered perdition added to perdition. Now, 
the words of King Solomon play a dirge in 
my soul, even to-day, as I write them: "Fears 
shall be in the way." Can any one imagine 
the clearing of the storm, and the foregleam 
of a new and better day which was breaking 
for her — when peace filled her soul, the smile 
of heaven kissed her lips, and she looked up 
with such spiritual repose, and said: "Mother 



Looking OBeponD tins ffiJotiO 203 

is with me in the bed." "I see all the dead 
I ever knew!" "Do you think your father 
will take me over?" And, again, when she 
was too weak to take even a glass of water, 
exclaimed: "They are feeding me!" The 
dear, loving mother had passed "Cape Fear," 
and was calmly gliding into the harbor of 
Rest. 

"Looking to'ard sunset, even here she caught 
Prophetic hints of those far, shining lands 
That lie beyond, — like one who understands 
The sign, ere yet the miracle is wrought. 
And so she went; ah, we who stay below, 
Watching the radiance of her upward flight—- 
Who, who of us shall reach such lofty height, 
Or leave behind so fair an afterglow." 

As we looked upon the body, embalmed and 
laid out in our study, waiting the funeral day, 
we thought of the other word of the ancient 
seer: "The almond tree shall flourish." This 
tree blossoms in winter upon a leafless stem. 
Its flowers, at first are a pale, pink color, like 
the cheeks of childhood; but they turn to a 
snowy whiteness as they fall from the 
branches. The almond-tree of Nature, and 
the snowy tresses of a dead mother, seem like 
twins held by Nature's own laws. How pure 



204 (Bittnntn Vision or, 

and lovely these white, hairs looked to us in 
life; and when death had claimed our darling, 
we felt it would be a sacrilege to keep any of 
them back from the grave. When the last 
word had been said, and the blanket was 
thrown over her sacred body, just before the 
lid of the casket clicked for the last time, we 
saw the white emblems of purity, and they 
seemed to beckon us on to such a life, and to 
such a heaven. 

"Beautiful rest for the weary; 
Well-deserved sleep for the true ! 
When our life's journey is ended, 
We shall again be with you! 
This helps to quiet our weeping, 
Hark ! angel-music so sweet ! 
He giveth to his beloved 
Beautiful, beautiful sleep !" 

Solomon closes by saying: "They go to 
their long home, and the mourners go about 
the streets." Yes, the quiet quest as one re- 
turns from the family plot — looking for 
mother in the daytime, and in the night-time, 
is like the mourner going about the streets — 
set going by Death, and continuing to go un- 
til overtaken by the same storm. Yet, never 
finding mother until she is found in heaven. 



Hooking IBegonD tins £2JoriD 205 

No wonder Talmadge said: "I want to go 
to heaven to see Moses and the prophets ; but 
I'd rather see my father. I want to go there 
to see Hannah and Abigail; but I would 
rather see my mother." The greatest arch- 
angel would have no attraction for us like that 
of our own dear, little mother. 

Our mother which art in heaven! But, may 
we never see her, or hear her, until we go 
there to stay? 

Beecher thought his mother inspired his best 
pulpit utterances. A drunkard who had tried 
every moral means and failed, was cured in a 
moment of the drink habit by his mother, who 
was, in her spirit body, standing at the bar 
and facing him. The glass of whiskey fell to 
the floor, and he never entered a saloon there- 
after. Testimony is given from people of all 
religious beliefs to verify the fact that those 
on the other side of life visit us to help us. 

"How pure in heart and sound in head, 
With what divine affections bold 
Should be the man whose thoughts would hold 
An hour's communion with the dead !" 

Every loyal son and daughter feel that 
their mother was a little nearer the ideal than 



206 extended Vision or, 

any other mother; and this is well! No hands 
like our mother's, even if they look horny and 
wrinkled to others. No face like our moth- 
er's face, even if it was thought to be homely 
by others. No heart like that of our mother, 
though others may have been full of kindness. 
That life and that love fills us with unutter- 
able surprise! 

"The silver chord is loosed !" 

The golden bowl is broken !" 

"The pitcher is broken at the fountain !" 

"The wheel is broken at the cistern!" 

There are times when we feel almost com- 
pelled to go and dig into the grave, and take 
another look at the relic of what was once 
mother ; but with all of those f eelings, we know 
that she lives somewhere — and as no place 
would be suitable for such a refined soul save 
heaven, we often cry out : "Our mother which 
art in heaven." Some day we will look into 
each other's eyes — where eyes are not dimmed 
and tears are not shed, 'till then we hear her 
say: 

"Some day, who knows, perchance 
Where friends can ne'er forget, 

They'll clasp me in their arms 
And call me Mother, yet !" 



Looking IBeponD $10 MIotID 207 



MY DEAD. 

I cannot think of them as dead 

Who walk with me no more ; 
Along the path of Life I tread, 

They have but gone before. 

The Father's house is mansioned fair 

Beyond my vision dim; 
All souls are His, and, here or there, 

Are living unto Him. 

And still their silent ministry 

Within my heart hath place, 
As when on earth they walked with me 

And met me face to face. 

Their lives are made forever mine; 

What they to me have been 
Hath left henceforth its seal and sign 

Engraven deep within. 

Mine are they by an ownership 

Nor time nor death can free; 
For God hath given to Love to keep 

Its own eternally. 

— F. L. Hosmer. 



CHAPTER XVII 

MATES IN SPIRIT LIFE 

Entering the domestic relations of life, on 
either side of the great divide, we meet with 
problems which are intricate, 

A blood tie, like that of mother and son, 
may be more easily understood, than a co- 
partnership between male and female of dif- 
ferent families. Civilization provides differ- 
ent conditions for womanhood from that 
which her sex enjoys in barbarism. Those 
creatures of earth who are in elemental con- 
ditions, must needs evolve here, or hereafter, 
before they can understand what home means ; 
and so deductions made in this article are not 
for them, but for those who have grasped the 
privileges of modern times and countries. 
Neither are these findings applicable to a cer- 
tain type of youth and maiden, who are legally 
married, though not truly mated. 

209 



210 <E*tenUeD Vision or, 

Marriage is an honorable estate to those 
who engage in it reverently, discreetly, and 
with purity of heart, but a shallow mockery as 
it is frequently consummated. If there were 
more ideal weddings on earth, there would be 
less changes of relationship in spirit-life. With 
multitudes, the marriage vow now terminates 
at death ; many showing that from the nuptial 
hour life was only a living death. It termi- 
nates in the divorce courts, not infrequently; 
because man tried to join together that which 
was never joined by Nature. Marriage will 
continue in the next expression of life, where 
there has been a harmonious blending in the 
present world. How are we to know real 
earth-mates? Earth-mates are those who are 
the counterpart of each other — physically, 
mentally, morally, socially, financially, and 
spiritually. Such must, of necessity, be spirit- 
mates in any life. 

We are glad that home means more to hus- 
band and wife in enlightened lands than it 
could possibly mean elsewhere. There re- 
mains, however, much for us to learn before 
we measure up to our privilege. There is a 
tendency to mate the barn-yard fowl, and the 



Looking 15eponD tbi*' moil* 211 

cattle more carefully than is our custom with 
the rising generation. Lust blinds love in many 
cases, and gold shuts out a multitude of sins. 
If we would lay foundations here for homes 
which will endure the shock of death, and take 
hold upon a larger and better life, some les- 
sons must be learned. The admonition of the 
Book of Genesis is, "Be fruitful and multiply 
and replenish the earth." This figure takes 
us into the orchard, back of the old home- 
stead, and teaches us a lesson which trees may 
tell and not irritate the pupil. Look at the 
fruitful tree, and you see a tree full of fruit. 
No tree could give forth such beauty and 
promise, were it not healthful and in the right 
soil. It also shows maturity. People who 
are not healthful and matured should never 
consent to enter into the bonds of matrimony. 
They are unfit to multiply and replenish the 
earth; too many of them are doing so, thus 
filling our hospitals and even penal institu- 
tions. Roosevelt's suggestions are all right, 
providing quality accompanies quantity. Our 
nation can well afford to look to fitness in the 
next few hundred years, and give less thought 
to numbers. The people who do not follow 



212 OBEt en D e D Vision ot, 

the instruction of the tree, cannot go on far in 
the double furrow of life without waking up 
to the fact that God had nothing to do with 
joining them together. The law may have 
done so, the minister or the magistrate may- 
have uttered the words, but the tree says 
"No." It must be a blessed comfort to such 
to know they are divided in death, for truly 
they were divided in life. Doubtless they will 
find a soul-mate in the great City of Light; 
but it will not be the one who walked by their 
side as husband or wife here. True wedlock 
begins long before physical birth, and contin- 
ues long after physical death. 

The Sadducees, who believed there was no 
resurrection from the dead, came to the great 
Eastern Teacher, and tried to prove their ma- 
terialistic belief by asking a domestic ques- 
tion. Quoting Moses, they said: "If a man 
die having no children, his brother shall marry 
his wife and raise up seed unto his brother." 
Then they cited a case which had come under 
their own observation, as follows: "Now there 
were with us seven brethren; and the first 
when he had married a wife, deceased, and 
having no issue, left his wife unto his brother. 



Cooking !5eponO tins MJotlD 213 

Likewise the second also, and the third unto 
the seventh. And last of all the woman died 
also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose 
wife shall she be of the seven? For they all 
had her." Rather a unique case for either 
side of the grave. This, the Sadducees 
thought, was too much for the Pharisees, who 
believed in life after death, and too much for 
the Teacher who was proclaiming that doc- 
trine. They would change the ceremony from 
" 'Till death us do part," unto " 'Till extinc- 
tion puts an end to us." The ancient Master 
was like all good teachers, a person of active 
brain, clear thought, and ready with an answer 
to any man seeking light, never desiring to hu- 
miliate him. Rising to the occasion, he re- 
plied: "In the resurrection they neither marry 
or are given in marriage, but are as the an- 
gels of God in heaven." Some have under- 
stood this to mean that under no circum- 
stances will the marital relations of life con- 
tinue beyond the confines of time. Did He so 
teach? Not if we are able to read between 
the lines. He did teach that the propagation 
of the species ceases at the open door of eter- 
nity, but not that life changes its love the 



214 attended Vision or, 

other side of the doorway. The law of Moses 
as to offspring is repealed when this mortal 
puts on immortality, but the law of cohesion, 
which knows no bonds, always triumphs, even 
after prophecies fail, tongues cease, and 
knowledge vanishes ; we might sum the matter 
up with the statement that the old-fashioned 
marriage knows no end, and the new-fashioned 
one never knew any true beginning. The new 
is for a butterfly career, an easy existence, 
financial gain, social preferment, and lust. The 
old, for wifehood, motherhood, home, and 
heaven. Such husbands and wives come to 
look alike, act alike, love alike, and grow into 
each other's being, as the Siamese twins were 
joined together. Death can only cut them 
apart, for a little while — the pull from the 
heavenly side, and the aspiration from the 
earth side, draw them together again as the 
steel filings are drawn to the magnet. They 
will live together during the unnumbered 
years of the future, in the mansions not made 
with hands. 

Edwin Arnold, in the "Secret of Death," 
shows the form of a wife held in the cold em- 
brace of Nature, and the heart-broken hus- 



Looking OBegonO thin MJotID 215 

band alone with her, seeking to court her fa- 
vor as he did in the years when mortality had 
not been swallowed up by life. In the first 
part of his poetic dialogue, friends say: 

"She is dead," they said to him, "come away"; 
"Kiss her, and leave her, thy love is clay." 

Going on with their last offices for the dead, 
they try to dress her and fix her so she will 
look beautiful even in death. Loving hands 
can frequently do what the commercial under- 
taker would pass over. 

"They smoothed her tresses of dark brown hair; 
On her forehead of stone they laid it fair ; 
With a tender touch they closed up well 
The sweet, thin lips that had secrets to tell ; 
And over her bosom they crossed her hands ; 
'Come away/ they said — God understands." 

Watch that man and learn the lesson of a 
true husband's love; a love which refused to 
be separated even by death. See and hear 
him in one of the tenderest utterances which 
has ever been thrown into verse. 

"But he who loved her too wise to dread, 
The sweet, the stately, the beautiful dead, 
He lit his lamp, and took the key, 



216 OBitenDeD Vision or, 

And turned it, alone again, he and she. 

Then he said — 'Cold lips and breast without breath, 

Is there no voice, no language of death? 

See now, I listen with soul, not ear; 

What was the secret of dying, dear? 

perfect dead ! O dead most dear ! 

1 hold the breath of my soul to hear. 
There must be pleasure in dying, sweet, 
To make you so placid from head to feet. 

I would tell you, darling, if you were dead, 
And t'were your hot tears upon my brow shed. 
You should not ask vainly with streaming eyes, 
Which of all deaths was the chief surprise ? " 

Such devotion as this reminds us that more 
of such marriages would mean less skeletons 
in the family wardrobe. If the reader was 
reared in such domestic environment, they 
need not fear the family-circle being changed 
in the next grade of life. Are you eager to 
know what happened beside that bier? Go 
a step further with the inspired poet, and 
read: 

"Who will believe what he heard her say, 
With a sweet, soft voice, in the dear old way." 

There might be more messages from the so- 
called dead to the so-called living, where there 
a more holy affinity between the separated. 
Before the curtain rings down on that last 



Hooking IBtvonU fbi* MJoriD 217 

sublime act, hear the wife's words to the hus- 
band: 

" 'The utmost wonder is this — / hear and see you, 
and love you, and kiss you, dear, and are your Angel, 
who was your bride, and know that though dead, I 
have never died! " 

In the years of my ministry, family troubles 
of every name and nature have been poured 
into my ears, and after the recital of the story 
I have inquired, "If you were single, would 
you take another partner?" A large majority 
have answered "No." When the reply came 
in the affirmative, I have put a second ques- 
tion: "Were you to marry again, would you 
prefer your present companion?" Sad to re- 
late, nine out of ten have answered "No." 
These certainly are not included under the 
caption of "Old-Fashioned Marriages." We 
remember the story of a poor boy who asked 
for the hand of a lovely girl. He received 
not only her hand, but her heart. They be- 
gan married life at the bottom of the ladder; 
no wedding-bells, no wedding-gifts, not even 
a wedding-ring. Three children blessed that 
union, besides the one who was only a bud on 
earth. During the years of their adolescence, 



218 <£*tenOeti Vision or, 

poverty often pinched that little household; 
but mother and father worked together — she 
in the home, doing her own work without a 
servant, and giving the neighbors a lift be- 
sides, and he in his regular vocation. Nb rip- 
ple of discontent, no words spoken in anger; 
they were proud of their children, of the mort- 
gaged cottage by the bay, and hopeful for the 
future. Society honors and political prefer- 
ment passed them by without knocking at the 
door; but at the north window she waited for 
his coming at the close of business, as she 
never would have waited for a king. By the 
time winter had kissed their locks and turned 
them white like snow, they were amply pro- 
vided for; and when death called for the hus- 
band, heart-failure developed in the wife. 
There were no outward ostentations; and 
though she lived for a score of years, it was 
like the life of the bird without its mate. Some- 
times the young people would joke with her 
and suggest another marriage. She would al- 
ways reply: "I would not have the best man 
upon earth." She was never able to speak of 
him without choking, and the dew of affection 
would always bathe her eyes. She stood by 



JLookins TBeponO tins ffllotlO 219 

the foot of the bed when his breath grew 
shorter, and heard him call her the loved name 
he gave her in youth. He described to her 
the beautiful scenes open to the eyes of the 
soul, named the astral forms of relatives and 
friends who were in the room to conduct him 
onward; after committing her to his children, 
he gathered up his feet in death. Just as he 
left the shore of time, a son said, as he held 
his hand: "Pop, you are almost home." A 
gentle pressure of the hand, a smile which did 
not fade with death, and all was over. The 
last question that little mother asked when 
she was waiting for the boatman to take her 
over, was: "Will he be there to receive me?" 
The dear man had said a few hours before his 
departure, when talking with a son about his 
grave, "It will be so nice to be buried by the 
sea." Now they rest side by side — together 
in life for half a century — together in death — 
together for all eternity. This was an "Old- 
Fashioned Marriage." O, yes, they are will- 
ing to be as the angels over there! No desire 
to continue to bring children into life's ex- 
pression; they are on a higher rung. They 
will rejoice over the Lamb in the upper fold, 



220 dBxten Hen Vision or, 

the daughter and two sons left behind in the 
world. We shall see them in their home by 
the crystal sea; shall hear them speak the old 
pet names, and, perhaps, sing together, 
"Home, sweet home." 

When the eyes of real husbands or real 
wives rest on this chapter, if either have fol- 
lowed the remains of a companion to the 
grave, just remember they have simply gone 
on a little ahead to prepare for your coming; 
plan to continue the home-life which was 
broken here. Loving households are heaven 
in miniature. Heaven without father, mother, 
brother, and sister, would not begin to com- 
pare with earth. 

"Alas for him who never sees 
The stars shine through his cypress trees. 
Who, hopeless, lays his dead away, 
Nor looks to see the breaking day 
Across the mournful marbles play. 
Who hath not learned in hours of death, 
The truth, to flesh and sense unknown, 
That life is ever Lord of Death, 
And love can never lose its own." 



Looking: IBeponD tin* SftotlO 221 



THE ANGEL OF PATIENCE. 

To weary hearts, to mourning homes, 
God's meekest Angel gently comes; 
No power has he to banish pain, 
Or give us back our lost again ; 
And yet in tenderest love our dear 
And heavenly Father sends him here. 

There's quiet in that Angel's glance; 
There's rest in his still countenance! 
He mocks no grief with idle cheer, 
Nor wounds with words the mourner's ear ; 
But ills and woes he may not cure 
He kindly trains us to endure. 

Angel of Patience, sent to calm 
Our feverish brow with cooling palm; 
To lay the storms of hope and fear, 
And reconcile life's smile and tear; 
The throbs of wounded pride to still, 
And make our own our Father's will ! 

O thou who mournest on thy way, 
With longings for the close of day! 
He walks with thee, that Angel kind, 
And gently whispers, "Be resigned : 
Bear up, bear on, the end shall tell 
The dear Lord ordereth all things well !" 

— John G. Whittier. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS HEREAFTER 

Some families are much more clannish than 
others. The bump of inhabitativeness is 
largely developed in such natures, making it 
easy for them to cling to one place, and hard, 
indeed, to change to new pastures. In such 
homes brothers and sisters remain under the 
same roof-tree, and nothing can seem to tear 
them apart. Other boys go to the city to make 
fame and fortune; these boys are not tied to 
their mother's apron-strings. Other girls 
break away from home restraints, and seek a 
commercial life in the great centers of popula- 
tion, working as bookkeepers, stenographers, 
sales-ladies, etc. The type of girl first men- 
tioned could not be induced to leave the "auld 
folk." You have exemplified in such boys 
and girls what the learned phrenologist calls 
"The cat nature." Let any family move to a 
new section of the city which had a feline in 

223 



224 CztentieD Vision or, 

the home, and they will find an illustration of 
inhabitativeness. Put the cat in a closed bas- 
ket so it is unable to see the way to the new 
home, and as truly as the blind- folded muscle- 
reader will drive to a particular spot, and lo- 
cate a hidden article, so truly will that cat find 
the empty house, and hang around it, waiting 
for a new tenant. Cats and many people are 
enamored of a particular locality. They will 
cling to the spot even after the friends have 
gone. In the human family children so con- 
stituted get home-sick if they are out of sight 
of the old farm. No cooking like mother's; 
no bed like mother's; no friends like home- 
friends. These boys and girls, when grown 
up, may marry ; but the new husband, or wife, 
must marry the whole family; and all live in 
the old homestead. Such homes are not broken 
except by death. They are good-hearted 
enough to believe in multiplication, but there 
must never be any subtraction. These broth- 
ers and sisters know all the idiosyncracies of 
each other, and think them quite normal. 
They are interested in the minutest detail of 
each other's lives, and would defend them with 
their own blood if necessary. 



Looking 15eponO tins »riO 225 

Such people are in a large measure the con- 
servers of our country districts. If it were 
not for them, all the young people would flock 
into our cities, and the rural sections would be 
abandoned. The cradle which rocked the gen- 
erations long since gathered into "God's 
Acre," is good enough for them. The school- 
house, which was the educational centre for 
their parents, is good enough for them. The 
post-office, where the town meets when the 
stage comes in, and where the post-mistress 
has first access to postal cards, is to their lik- 
ing. The old family pew is not too straight 
for these people. The cracked bell is sweet 
music to them, and the meeting house is their 
weekly mecca, and the "Old-Time Religion" 
is good enough for them and theirs. The old 
graveyard, where the grass is knee-high, and 
stones and fences down, impresses them as the 
real spot for life's long rest. These brothers 
and sisters will want to fence off a spot in 
Paradise where they will not be annoyed with 
new-fangled notions, and where city-life will 
be as remote from them as it was on the earth. 

There is a kind of tribal love here which is 
narrow — having some good points, but not, 



226 OBxten D e D Vision ot, 

as a whole, to be desired. Brothers and sisters 
who have different shaped heads, are quite as 
different as though they were of another spe- 
cies. These, with small inhabitativeness, have 
wiry, nervous temperaments, and want new 
scenes all the time. They are on the alert 
for new fields; and must change as often as 
the snake sheds its skin. Country-life is too 
tame for them. They long to jostle the mul- 
titude. They want to be at the zenith of their 
joy when the white Broadway is all ablaze, 
and their country cousins have been sleeping 
for hours. Their skull is built like that of a 
dog. Wherever friends are it is at home. 
You need not put them in a closed basket 
when you move. Dogs w T ill jump on the first 
load, wag their tails, and bark all along the 
line, as much as to say: "We are out for new 
experiences." Such people would rather live 
in a stuffy attic in a city, than on the ground 
floor in the country. They would chop up the 
old cradle for kindling wood. The old school- 
house holds no sweet memories for them. The 
old church is good enough for an occasional 
funeral, but that is all. The family pew — 
well, when they lived home the lad was scolded 



Looking 15tponH tW t&otlD 227 

many and many a time for failing to sit there, 
and for camping in the back seat with the boys 
who wanted a little quiet fun! As to the las- 
sie, the choir was a good place for her, where 
she could sing to the glory of the choir-master 
during the anthem; and study the bald heads 
and the fashions during prayer. The old the- 
ology to them was like last year's autumn 
leaves — good only for the brush heap. When 
these boys and girls scatter, they may go into 
a church, once in a while, to hear some great 
orator, or some famous soloist; but, as a rule, 
these things are too tame for their active 
brains. You remember this lad leaving for 
the city almost as soon as he donned long 
pants, and this lassie soon breaking away from 
the contracted environments. 

New centres were soon established in each 
case. Business-life had charms in it for the 
boy; he liked the hustle and bustle of the 
marts of trade. To be deprived of home com- 
forts were as nothing to him, if by any chance 
he could come to affluence and fame. He 
dropped his boyhood as he crossed his father's 
threshold outward, and entered the realms of 
manhood. His own parents would hardly; 



228 4£*tenDeD Vision or, 

know him, in after years, when he was in the 
race for gold, and in quiet moments he hardly 
knew himself. The old folks have no idea 
where he spends his evenings, or how. He is 
not home-sick. The bump of inhabitativeness 
is so small, he is at home anywhere he hangs 
his hat. He is here, there, and everywhere — 
like the dog running into a thousand avenues 
which are not necessary. They seem essen- 
tial to the roving nature; but O! the wasted 
energy! Later in life the boy marries; he 
forms new social circles, and the parents never 
are adjusted to these peculiar conditions; and 
so never feel at home with the wife and her 
friends. The sister marries also ; and here an- 
other circle is formed. The old home goes to 
decay; or is sold to strangers. That family 
book is closed and sealed unto the times of the 
end. 

The sister has a perfect brood of children 
around her, and so many cares that there is 
no time to interest herself in even the affairs 
of her brothers. Girlhood is merged into 
wifehood and motherhood. In a short time 
her hair turns white ; and grandchildren gather 
about her knee. These brothers and sisters 



Looking OSeponD tins £2JotiD 229 

have grown apart for so many years they seem 
to have very little in common ; and can hardly 
trace relationship. Paying a visit to brother 
or sister an introduction is necessary to their 
friends; and the stranger remarks, "I see no 
family resemblance." If such continue to 
grow apart in the great future, we may pass 
each other on the Streets of Gold; and think 
we have never met before. 

What a diversity of natures born from the 
same parents! We apprehend a re-adjust- 
ment in the land beyond the stars. There will 
be everlasting evolutions, and a constant en- 
f oldment ; yet we trust there will be an oppor- 
tunity and a disposition sufficient to take up 
the broken strands of life, and cement them 
with a new love — thus rendering unto brother 
and sister their due. 

We cannot but feel that a part of the joys 
of the hereafter will be boyhood and girlhood, 
for those who die without having touched 
that delightful phase of life. Again and again 
we have caught ourselves saying: 

"Backward, turn backward, O time in thy flight ! 
Make me a child again, just for to-night !" 



230 (Bztzntjzn Vision or, 

But the thought presses in upon us that it 
is not backward, but forward where we must 
know those joys. Like the power of Niagara, 
we find a current pushing us forward, and we 
trust, toward Eternal Youth. 

We look upon the boys of to-day, and com- 
pare their dress and their privileges with those 
of the boys of the long past yesterdays; and 
O! how these lovely sights make us long for 
youth! Our grandmothers made our clothes 
of homespun; and they fitted like meal-bags 
on match-sticks. Everything else was as crude. 
We never knew boyhood, we crave boyhood; 
that which we crave will come to us. 

In the hereafter we shall touch life at every 
unfinished point, and so for hundreds of years, 
we want to be a boy ! Sisters who began mar- 
ried life when but girls may also desire to live 
the days of young maidenhood; and this will 
be the opportunity. Then brothers will come 
to know brothers ; sisters know sisters ; and all 
know each other. Some time in the future, if 
we have not already done so, we may stand by 
an open grave; home-ties will gather around 
us and be broken-hearted; we will hear the 
clods fall on the casket, and be almost un- 



Hooking 'BeponD tfrf* 82JotiD 231 

moved. A brother or sister's body will be con- 
signed to the elements; but we will think: 
"Yes, brother or sister, but we know them 
not." This will be different in the great here- 
after. 

The Teacher said "Thy brother shall rise 
again." It will not be the busy business man. 
"Thy brother shall rise again!" A comfort to 
believe we shall yet know brother as brother. 
The sister who used to curl up in the great 
black arm-chair, and not speak for an even- 
ing because of her timidity, now a white- 
haired woman with two generations about her 
feet, we shall know, not as a wife, mother, or 
grandmother, but as a sister. "Thy sister 
shall rise again." The ones who left the earth 
in the morning of life, whose faces we have 
forgotten — if indeed we ever knew them — 
those who have gone from beauty to beauty in 
Paradise — we shall find them; they will find 
us; and there will be reinstated the old home- 
ties. 

The ones who cling to each other through 
all of life's day — as the ivy clings to the vine — 
are more broken up when the storm of death 
tears away one of their number — making 



232 (Bzttntttti Vision or, 

havoc in an unbroken home; and these cling 
closer and closer until the last one is taken. 
They will not experience the joys of discov- 
ery which come to the other class as they scan 
every niche and corner of the Kingdom. 
These could not be content to "sit on the soft 
side of a damp cloud and play a harp for- 
ever." They will want to energize and bring 
out things, new and old. They will add zest 
and variety to heavenly conditions; and keep 
everything moving to the satisfaction of the 
most active. 

From the standpoint of our various needs, 
we shall find the hereafter will fairly measure 
up to our fondest expectations. There brother 
and sister will vie with father and mother to 
make and perpetuate an ideal home. 



BABY'S SHOES. 

Oh, those little, those little blue shoes! 

Those shoes that no little feet use. 
Oh, the price were high 
That those shoes would buy, 

Those little blue unused shoes ! 



JLoofeing TSeponD W$ »>rlO 233 

For they hold the small shape of feet 
That no more their mother's eyes meet, 

That, by God's good will, 

Years since grew still, 
And ceased from their totter so sweet. 

And oh, since that baby slept, 

So hushed, how the mother has kept, 

With a tearful pleasure, 

That little dear treasure, 
And over them thought and wept ! 

For they mind her for evermore 
Of a patter along the floor; 

And blue eyes she sees 

Look up from her knees 
With the look that in life they wore. 

As they lie before her there, 
There babbles from chair to chair 

A little sweet face 

That's a gleam in the place, 
With its little gold curls of hair. 

Then, oh, wonder not that her heart 
From all else would rather part 

Than those tiny blue shoes 

That no little feet use, 
And whose sight makes such fond tears start! 

— W. C. Bennett. 



CHAPTER XIX 

GREEN GRAVES NOT THREE FEET LONG 

There are more small graves in our ceme- 
teries than large ones. The cry of the early 
century — "Rachel weeping for her children 
and refusing to be comforted because they 
were not," is the cry of every century, and the 
majority of mothers. 

The most of the human family die in in- 
fancy. What about the future of this un- 
numbered host, which pass out in serried 
ranks, the procession reaching from pre-his- 
toric man, one million abreast, to our time, 
every moment only adding to the innumerable 
company? "Not an easy problem to solve," 
rou may say. The church has staggered be- 
fore it for ages. Even now they scarcely 
know where to place the dimpled darlings. 
One school taught for many generations that 
"Hell is lined with babies' skulls, and there 

235 



236 <BzttnHzU Vision or, 

are babies in hell not a span long." What a 
hopeless hope for the dead! What a solemn 
solace for the living! This was an outgrowth 
of the theory that "Man is born in sin, and 
shapen in iniquity." These little ones having 
no knowledge of salvation were obliged to 
perish without it, as the heathens do, so said 
the preachers. What an unutterable soul- 
agony parents must have experienced in the 
thought that they had brought children into 
the world simply to suffer forever. What in- 
expressible joy must have been theirs when 
reaching the other side to have their rosy- 
cheeked darlings welcome them home. In 
the course of time an effort was made to 
bridge over the dark chasm, and let at least 
some of these cherubs pass into heaven. They 
tried to effect this change by sprinkling water 
on the forehead, and then declaring them part 
of the elect. The reputed words of Jesus, 
He sat a child in the midst and said, "Of such 
is the kingdom of heaven"; and "Except ye be 
converted and become like a little child, ye 
cannot enter into the kingdom," formed part 
of the ceremony. Since the introduction of 
water salvation, mothers who have lost un- 



Looking IBt^onH tftfff M3otID 237 

baptized children have been told they were not 
saved, because this sacrament was not ob- 
served. The teaching now is "water salva- 
tion" for unconscious children, and "blood sal- 
vation" for adults. Wisdom will perish with 
such teachers! 

The author was attending a minister's meet- 
ing on a certain Monday, when a broken- 
hearted mother called four times to ask him to 
hasten and christen a baby who was dying 
from croup. My own mother urged me to go 
before dinner. On reaching the house, I no- 
ticed the peculiar satisfaction which came to 
the inmates, as they said in undertones, "The 
minister has arrived." The little boy was suf- 
fering terribly, and I told the parents I was 
more concerned about his body than his soul. 
I said to the adults, "If you were half as ripe 
for futurity as that little baby, you would be 
happy indeed." I showed them that baptism 
was no avail; and after fully explaining the 
subject, the mother laughed through her tears, 
and told the following story: "Some years 
ago I lost an infant daughter, and my pastor 
told me we would never meet in heaven, be- 
cause I had failed to have her baptized. When 



238 d£*tenDeO Vision or, 

this boy was given up by the physician, I felt 
I could not be the means of sending another 
child into that terrible place, so sent for you. 
Now a double burden is lifted. First, for the 
one who has passed out; and for this one, 
whether he remains or goes. I was almost 
mad; now I rejoice in life or death." Throw- 
ing all her healing thoughts to the suffering 
one, as well as using the proper remedies, he 
was soon out of danger. What about the 
minister who had struck the blow of hell into 
that mother's heart? Alas! Alas! Still going 
about striking terror to those who linger over 
the diseased ones. The law should control 
such cases where the parson will not know and 
teach the truth. A mother who goes down to 
the gates of the grave to let a new life smile 
upon a strange world, should never be called 
upon to be crushed in any such cruel way. 
Since so many are only buds here to be trans- 
planted to the garden of the gods, how may 
we expect to find them on the other side of 
life? Will they be babies forever? Do all 
forms of life change on the spirit side, save 
that of the children? Our great American 
poet, Longfellow, was told to write on this 



Looking TBeponD t|»0 ft&otlD 239 

important theme, and his inspiration runs 
thus: 

"Not as a child shall we again behold her; 

For, when with raptures wild 
In our embraces we again enfold her, 

She will not be a child; 

But a fair maiden, in her Father's mansion, 

Clothed with celestial grace ; 
And beautiful with all the soul's expansion 

Shall we behold her face." 

Much more lovely is this thought than the 
old doctrine of Calvanism; but will it satisfy 
the mother-heart, and does it cover all the 
case? Going away as a baby, will the mother 
be reconciled to meet her as a lovely maiden? 
Would that be "mother's baby?" Seems to 
me Longfellow did not quite get into the new 
thought of heaven, and heavenly conditions. 
On the other hand, would parents feel right to 
have a child arrested for years or forever in 
its unfoldment, just to gratify the longing for 
baby arms and caresses? A baby of a few 
months, or years of age, is one of the most 
interesting objects on earth. How we study 
them! How we learn from them! How we 
love them! But a baby forty years of age 



240 <£* ten tied &i$i on ot, 

would be a skeleton in almost any domestic 
circle. A man of years, with a baby's body, or 
mind, would be of no value to the home, and a 
curse to himself. A baby a million years old, 
even in heaven, would be a monstrosity. 

There must be an inter-blending of earth 
and heaven conditions, with earth and heaven 
ages, to fill the desire of the offspring, and ul- 
timately satisfy the mother's affection. The 
two statements of baby life, and adult life, in 
the same person, are truth, though they may 
impress one at first as being a paradox. When 
a great throng of people were standing on the 
capitol grounds at Washington to witness the 
inauguration of James A. Garfield, as Presi- 
dent of the United States, they saw him di- 
rectly he was inducted into office, turn and 
kiss his wrinkled mother. She replied: "No 
matter what he is to the nation, he will always 
be Jimmie to me." The mother could see what 
the multitudes could not, the little boy, and 
the great statesman. Perhaps it may be easier 
understood by using the following illustration. 
Think of a man in his place of business dressed 
for the marts of trade. Certain people will 
only know him in that phase of life. They al- 



Looking: IBeponO thin MJotID 241 

ways see him in that way, and think of him in 
that way. He leaves the office, divests him- 
self of business garb, and invests himself with 
the uniform of a "Knight Templar." Some 
see him only in the lodge room or in the great 
parades, and know him in no other way. Once 
again we see him in full dress at a society 
function. His friends in the social set have 
never seen him in the two costumes before 
mentioned, so they only think of him as one 
of the "Four Hundred." Night comes on, 
and he sits by his own fireside with his own 
family, talking over the events of the day. 
The dressing-robe, slippers, and easy chair, 
are now his as he relaxes. His family know 
him in all of these expressions of life; others 
know him in but one. In business, in frater- 
nity life, in social life, in home life, he is one 
and the same. The change has been an ex- 
terior, and not an interior, one. 

Learn from this illustration that a spirit has 
power to lay off and take on bodies, as this 
man did raiment. The spirit one and the 
same, no matter what the exterior-expression 
may be. The human body is not one bulky 
mass we take on at birth, and deposit in the 



242 OBEtenDeD Vision or, 

grave at death, never to be called up again. 
We have many bodies here and hereafter, as 
he had many suits of clothes. Scientific men 
used to tell us that we had a new body once 
in seven years. Now they say a new body 
every eleven and one-half months. 

Bodies in the spirit-life will change as they 
do in the earth-life. Christmas time comes, 
and a boy finds in his stocking a box of blocks. 
With these he builds a fort, and destroys it; 
makes a church, and demolishes it. During 
the construction and destruction nothing is 
lost. At the end of the day he has as many 
blocks as at its beginning ; yet he has built and 
torn down, and built again. The spirit can 
play with material particles, as the boy does 
with the cubes. It is capable of building baby 
bodies, or adult bodies, as circumstances de- 
mand. The modern bridge builder takes down 
a worn-out structure, and builds a larger and 
better one while passenger trains go by, and 
freights are carried across the continent. So 
spirit can build up one body and scatter an- 
other, noiselessly, carefully, perfectly; and 
we pass on from place to place, even from 
earth to heaven, performing life's functions, 



Looking T5eponO this »>riD 243 

here or there, as though we had always lived 
in one body. Life and Death goes on all the 
time while we tabernacle in the wilderness of 
Time; and when we exchange worlds, we will 
still change from "glory to glory." At the 
time of transition the body goes through the 
triple change of "Earth to earth" — "Ashes to 
ashes" — "Dust to dust." When this comes to 
one of our own, it tries our soul as nothing else 
can do. The rich and the poor, the learned 
and the unlearned, pass under the rod, and 
cry out, as did the late Joseph Parker of City 
Temple, London, when he paid a sweet and 
powerful tribute to a little churchyard mound, 
in the following words : 

"Amid all the whirl and dizziness of life's 
tragedy, in which creation seems to be but one 
great cloud, I find myself suddenly brought 
to a sweet baby's grave. A gray old church, 
a gurgling stream, a far-spreading thorn-tree 
on a green hillock, and a grave on the sunny, 
southerly side. That is it. Thither I hasten 
night and day; and in patting the soft gra^s 
I feel as if conveying some sense of love to 
the little sleeper far down. Do not reason 
with me about it; let the wild heart in sweet 



244 «£stentieti Vision or, 

delirium of love have all its own way. Baby 
was but two years old, when like a dewdrop 
he went up to the warm sun, yet he left my 
heart as I have seen ground left, out of which 
a storm had torn a great tree. We talk about 
the influence of great thinkers, great speakers 
and great writers, but what about the little in- 
fant's power? O child of my heart, no poet 
has been so poetical, no soldier so victorious, 
no benefactor so kind, as thy unconscious self. 
I feel thy soft kiss on my withered lips just 
now, and would give all I have for one look 
of thy dreamy eyes, but I cannot have it. 
Nbt dark doubt, not staggering argument, not 
subtile sophism, but child death — especially 
when there is but one — makes one wonder and 
makes me cry in pain, Baby! Baby! I could 
begin the world again without a loaf or a 
friend if I had but thee; such a beginning, 
with all its hardships, would be welcome mis- 
ery. I do not wonder that the grass is green 
and soft that covers that little grave, and that 
the summer birds sing their tenderest notes as 
they sit on the branches of that old hawthorne 
tree. Is this not the heaviest cross that can 
crush the weakness of man? Yet that green 



Looking ISegonD ibis ft&orlD 245 

grave, not three feet long, is to me a great es- 
tate, making me rich with wealth untold. 
There I meet the infant angels ; there I see all 
the mothers whose spirits are above ; and there 
my heart says: 'Strange things in strange 
words. Do you know me? Do you see me? 
Do you look from sunny places down to this 
cold land of weariness? O baby! sweet, sweet 
baby! I will try for your sake to be a better 
man. I will be kind to other little babies, and 
tell them your name, and sometimes let them 
play with your toys; but, oh, baby! baby! 
My old heart throbs and breaks/ " 

This is so tender and pathetic it seems like 
the wail of a mother-heart, yet it is the out- 
burst of a cultured man, with great mental 
development; but with a spirit as large as it 
was tender. He knew as we do that "Death 
was not spoken of the soul." A lobster will 
drop its claws when it comes near shore, and 
meets an enemy; but it does not die, simply 
goes out into the deep waters, where the mud 
is soft, and builds another pair. The spirit 
drops the earth-body at the portals of death, 
and goes out into the deeper and richer life, 
having the power which it had here, of taking 



246 OB^tenDeD Vision or, 

on a new body as occasion may require. When 
emancipation day comes for the mother, she 
goes to meet those of her own household. She 
asks, "Will baby be there, know me, and be 
my own baby." Had she known the natural 
laws in the spiritual realm, that question 
might have been settled this side of the 
grave. This is how it occurs. The child, 
knowing the desire of the mother, simply ma- 
terializes a baby-body for purposes of identi- 
fication, and maternal satisfaction. She fon- 
dles and caresses the baby, and intuitively ex- 
claims: "Now show me your body as it has 
developed since leaving the earth-plane," and 
the "spiritual blocks" are thrown down again, 
and another more resplendent body formed. 
Mother sees in this even her own baby. So you 
see our spirit friends are able to take down, 
and put up, any body they will, as the child 
forms and reforms the blocks. This one will 
show themselves as a baby to those who knew 
them in infancy; an adult, to such as knew 
them in the prime of life ; and an aged pilgrim, 
to those who knew them as the last leaf upon 
the tree in the Spring. Nothing is lost, and 
this change of expression is as natural as the 



Looking !5eponD tins »>riO 247 

change of bodies this side the grave. The 
body here, and hereafter, is only an outward 
covering, and never permanent. Have you 
noticed the different bodies Jesus utilized dur- 
ing his forty days of materialization? First, 
seen as the "Gardener," so as not to excite 
Roman guards stationed around the tomb. 
Again, as the miracle-worker, or hungry fish- 
erman by the sea. Again, "as a stranger in 
Jerusalem," when walking through the public 
thoroughfare to Emmaus. Again, with the 
"print of the nails in his hands and the sword 
wound in his side," to meet Thomas on the 
plane of his understanding. Again, as an old 
man, on Patmos. 

This present body will not be the fixed body 
of the hereafter. No marks of earthly conflict 
can long disfigure us on the other side of 
life, yet we shall often take on worldly condi- 
tions, to satisfy the desires of those who knew 
us with earth's scars. "We shall know as we 
are known!" What a delightful time our spirit 
friends will have ; and we shall have a part in 
it, taking on earth's conditions, and throwing 
them off again. We shall talk over the dark 
and trying experiences of these lowlands, 



248 (Btttnntn Vision or, 

when the sting has been removed, and often 
impersonate the past. As the soldiers of the 
"Grand Army of the Republic" rehearse the 
old war scenes, so we shall talk over the 
scenes of time — transforming ourselves from 
earthly to heavenly bodies, according to our 
will. Rejoice, mother and father, for you will 
one day see the baby-face and be glad. You 
will also see them in their glory. "Eye hath 
not seen, ear hath not heard," the things which 
are prepared for parents, all earthly relatives, 
friends, and even ourselves. 

Rejoice in life and in death, for "it is bet- 
ter to go to the house of mourning, than to 
the house of feasting." 



Looking ISeponD tfti0 MJotlD 249 



MY KINGLY ST. BERNARD. 

There's a vacant place to-day, where my loved friend 

used to stay, 
On the carpet by my favorite easy chair; 'twas his 

resting place for years, 
And my eyes are full of tears, when I see he is no 

longer near me there. 

I have wondered, with hushed heart, how we two could 

ever part, 
For I knew the lonesome time was stealing on, and 

that sometime it might be, 
As to-day it is with me — sitting here and knowing 

one I love is gone. 

Dead! My St. Bernard is dead! Low his massive, 

silky head, 
Which he laid upon my lap to be caressed, while his 

wonderous, large brown eyes, 
Always true, intense and wise, seemed an anchor to 

my soul, howe'er distressed. 

Words express not my regret that I could not hold my 

pet 
From the grave, so dark and silent, where he lies, with 

his dear head on his paws, 
Chained by Nature's iron laws, unresponsive to my 

human miseries. 

Any moment, when alive, he had sympathy to give, 
Coming near to learn what troubled, and give aid; 

offering his massive paw, 
Pressing down his mighty jaw, saying plainly: "I am 

here, be not afraid." 



250 (EEtettDeO Vision or, 

Always lovable and grand, quick as thought to under- 
stand 

Each expression flittering o'er a human face, I have 
seldom seen outwrought 

Such impressiveness to thought, nor a human friend 
who more deserved his place. 

When I needs must stay alone I shall hear his thun- 

d'rous tone, 
As I used to in the yesterdays now dead; rolling 

through the lonesome dark — 
Hear my guardman's warning bark, and reach out my 

hand to stroke his noble head. 
Oh, what would I give to know, if to heaven I ever go, 
I shall meet my dear companion, happy there ; 
No harp playing e'er could be welcome as his bark to 

me 
When I reach that country, fair beyond compare. 

— Emma Rood Tuttle. 



Looking TBtyonti tW »rlD 251 



CHAPTER XX 

REDEMPTION NOT CONFINED TO MAN. 

Many people are so extremely narrow and 
selfish that they would monopolize Heaven, 
and limit eternal life if within their power so 
to do. American trusts and syndicates are lib- 
eral alongside of these individuals. The castes 
of India are not to be compared to what 
Heaven would be, could these pious adult chil- 
dren have their say. Some would have it a 
national affair, many would make it a race 
re-union. Some would narrow it down to a 
family gathering, to match the selfish prayers 
they have voiced for years. A very, very few, 
would permit everything which breathes to 
share in its gladness. 

There is a hopeful growth along the line of 
liberal thought, and an isolated number are 
magnanimous enough to grant room in the 
Eternal City for domestic animals, and lovely 
birds. Methinks the "Sea of Glass" would 



252 (Btttnntn ^ i0i on or, 

not be contaminated if some of the finny tribe 
should gambol in its waters. The tree bearing 
twelve manner of fruit, once a month, and 
filled with leaves for the healing of the nations, 
would look quite as well with birds of beauti- 
ful plumage and sweet song jumping from 
twig to twig. The grass by the "River of 
Life" would be well enlivened with flocks of 
sheep lying down in green pastures. No spot 
in all the universe could be more appropriate 
for the "Ninety and Nine." 

The great forests of eternity would be fit- 
ting places for the beasts which have been 
hounded to death by men who love to take 
life. The lawns around the "Many Mansions" 
would hardly be complete without our domes- 
tic animals. Seems to me I can see people 
holding up holy hands, and hear them ex- 
claim, "such views are erratic." "These flights 
are too visionary for consideration." But I 
beg of you to consider them, this moment, and 
see if we cannot hereafter agree. If false- 
hood lies behind this belief, then science has 
made a great mistake, and the Bible has blun- 
dered. The voice of Science tells us that ani- 
mals are sentient beings, or creatures of in- 



Looking 15eponti tins ffilotiO 253 

telligence. They, as well as man, can see, 
hear, feel, taste and smell, and each are able 
to reason up to the standard of his own organ- 
ism. None can reason as abstrusely, nor on 
as high a plane as man. This is not because 
man has a different kind of life from that pos- 
sessed by the lower animals, for all have simi- 
lar vital forces, and are from the same source 
of life. All sustain life in the same manner by 
the digestion of similar foods, producing blood 
muscles and bone, each according to his kind 
of nature. Each propagates his species, sim- 
ilarly bestowing the life upon his posterity. 
They differ in shape and mental capacity, but 
with all living things share in a great brother- 
hood. Without much reflection you may think 
there is no consanguinity between man and 
animal, and give as the reason that man has a 
soul, and the animal is born without one. 
Ponder the words of Solomon if you are will- 
ing to see how much we are alike. He wrote, 
"That which befalleth the sons of men be- 
falleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; 
as the one dieth, so dieth the other. Yea, they 
have all one breath, so that a man hath no pre- 
eminence above a beast." Surely there 



254 <E*tenDed Vision or, 

is a family resemblance here. This takes 
us to a common earth beginning, and 
a common earth end. Going a step deep- 
er he says, "All go into one place, all are of 
the dust, and all turn to dust again". This 
surely teaches that the physical component 
parts of man and beasts are the same. Now 
he leaves the teaching concerning our bodies, 
and gives a soul-lesson in the following words, 
"Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth 
upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth 
downward to the earth? 55 Each according to 
the wise man has a mortal life, and each a 
spirit life. Though the spirit of the beast may 
go to the earth-bound sphere for a season, in 
the fullness of time, all will rise to higher 
spheres. Men of base and animal passions be- 
gin in that low grade, but none remain there 
forever. 

If you want to claim in the future that ani- 
mals are soul-less, remember that, "Man hath 
no pre-eminence over the beasts. 55 All life is 
in the School of Evolution; and not doomed 
to extinction, but to a redemption which will 
surprise the most thoughtful student. 

Turning away from the instruction of scien- 



Looking OBeponD tins MJorlD 255 

tific men as to our origin, and from the wise 
words of Solomon, let us open again the 
pages of the book which many regard as the 
"Man of their counsel," and see if science and 
the Bible do not meet on one and the same 
platform, Paul in his sublime "Victory Chap- 
ter," writes, "Every created thing shall be de- 
livered from the bondage of corruption." As 
though that might not be strong or clear-cut 
enough, he says in the next verses, "For we 
know that every creature groaneth and trav- 
aileth in pain together until now ; but not only 
they, but we ourselves groan within ourselves, 
waiting for the adoption, to wit: The re- 
demption of our body." Here we find man 
and animal in the agony of childbirth, wait- 
ing for a better, sentient life; a new birth of 
the spirit. Paul speaks of it as "Redemp- 
tion," and that word means to "buy back." 

Every created thing started from the great 
"Over-Soul," and is to be "bought back." Do 
not be frightened away from this exalted truth 
by the thought of what some of the lower 
forms of life are now. The second birth, or 
the birth of the spirit, will do marvelous things 
for man and beast. Of man it is written: 



256 (BittnUtti Vision or, 

"It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorrup- 

tion." 

"It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory." 
"It is sown in weakness ; it is raised in power." 
"It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual 

body." 

What will be the full measure of this won- 
derful transformation? No tongue can tell. 
We having the same kind of life as the beasts, 
may there not be as great a transformation for 
them? There certainly is; and the Bible pic- 
tures it as it pictures man's. What saith the 
book? 

"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb." 

"The leopard shall lie down with the kid." 

"The calf, and the young lion, and f atling together." 

"The lion and bear shall feed ; their young ones shall 

lie down together." 

"The lion shall eat straw like the ox." 

"The suckling child shall play on the hole of the 

asp. 

"The weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's 

den." 

"They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy 

mountain." 

"A little child shall lead them." 

This transformation should satisfy any one, 
and make them feel that if "a little child can 
lead them " adults should not fear. What a 



Looking 15eponD tins »>tiO 257 

wonderful sight we shall behold when we see 
humanity "bought back" and brought back! 
What a wonderful scene we shall look upon 
when every creature, biped and quadruped, 
shall have been "bought back" and "brought 
back!" Perhaps some of us will have cause 
to feel the lower forms of life have played 
their part in the tragedy of earth, much better 
than we did, and for less reward. Their's 
is a life of service and sacrifice. Let us no 
longer count ourselves fit for glory, and they 
for extinction. 

Ministers of every name use the account of 
Noah's Ark, as a miniature picture of earth 
and heaven. The antideluvian age standing 
for our world, and the purified earth repre- 
senting the glory land. According to record, 
not only man was taken over into the new 
world, but the animals came forth in pairs 
also. Since the ark is a type of Heaven, we 
must look for them to land in the city which 
hath foundation, as well as ourselves. 

John, in the Book of Revelation, was privi- 
leged to see the Holy City, and his "Letter 
to the Seven Churches" tells us horses, and 
other animals were there, as well as beasts, el- 



258 C^tenDcD Vision ot, 

ders, and the multitude which no man can 
number. 

We wrest the Bible account when trying to 
make man very literal in the scene, and the 
animals only figurative. All men and crea- 
tures mentioned were there, or none at all. 
What possible objection could there be to this 
condition of affairs? Nothing but the spirit 
of selfishness and narrow-mindedness. A 
gigantic redemption which "buys back" every- 
thing which hath breath, should be a satisfac- 
tory joy to all benevolent persons. 

In other years when horsecars used to pull 
human loads up Brooklyn Heights, Dr. Tal- 
mage would watch the overburdened friends 
of humanity, and once in a sermon delivered 
in Schermerhorn Street Tabernacle, he ex- 
claimed, "These abused creatures will be 
turned out with the white horses mentioned 
by John in the Book of Revelation. 5 " 

If all humanity would accept this truth 
there would be little need for a society to 
prosecute men for the crime "Cruelty to Ani- 
mals." Did we but know we are in one great 
brotherhood, and will meet again, our acts 
would be more humane. Let us not make the 



Looking ISeponD tins MJotlD 259 

pangs of spiritual birth any harder for the 
quadrupeds than we would want them to make 
for the bipeds, were they clothed with the 
same power. Teach the children these les- 
sons of kinship for the good of all here, and 
hereafter. 

All birds sing in the minor key now, and 
the bass notes of animals and beasts are the 
half understood wailings for redemption. By 
and by the cages will be thrown open, and 
every creature will join in a grand "Hallelu- 
jah Chorus" — all the music to be in the ma- 
jor key. There will be a perfect accord be- 
tween man and animal then. A beautiful un- 
derstanding will pervade the universe, and the 
human family will then, if not now, render 
thanks that every creature has been bought 
back, and that nothing will hurt or destroy in 
all the holy mountain. 

Rejoice, beloved, in the thought of re-union 
with loved ones and pets in the Palace of the 
King! 



260 <E* ten Deo Vision ot, 



BILLY AND I. 

They say they are going to shoot you, Old Billy, but 

don't you fret, 
For the fellow who dares to meddle with you, must 

reckon with me, you bet ! 
You're a poor old horse, Old Billy, and you aren't 

worth much it is true ; 
But you've been a faithful friend to me, and I'll see 

you safely through. 

Shoot Old Billy ! I guess not, though you may be old 

and gray ; 
By the self same stretch of mercy they'll be shooting 

at me, some day. 
For I'm three times older than you are, for I've 

reached three score and ten; 
And shooting isn't the thing to do to horses no more 

than men. 

That's right, Old Billy, I like it — your muzzle against 

my face; 
We've had rattling times together, and once we won 

the race — 
Do you remember it, Billy, the dude that we downed 

that day, 
And the way he swore, that an old farm horse should 

show his trotter the way? 

I haven't much love for the fellows who follow the 

shooting plan ; 
If they had more pity for horses and dogs, they'd have 

more love for man ; 



Hookins IBeponD tbi* CQotID 261 

And this world would be much nearer the glad mil- 

lenium-day, 
If they'd just stop burning powder for good, and fire 

their guns away. 

Well, Billy, we're both great sinners, for we've both 

grown old, you know ; 
And we've only a little further adown the road to go. 
So we'll travel along together, till the Master call us 

Home, 
To the happy Home-Land Stables, and our feet forget 

to roam. 

Yes, we've jogged along together, for many and many 

a day, _ ^ 4 

So we'll just keep on ajogging, to the ending of the 

way; 
And, at last, when the shadows falling shall tell the 

time for rest, 
We will meet, then, nothing fearing, for you know 

we've done our best. 

Won't it be jolly, Old Comrade, in the pastures green 
and fair, 

To roll in the fragrant clover that must bloom for- 
ever there? 

You'll be there, Billy, I know it, for they'll surely let 
you in — 

I only wish my record on earth was a quarter as free 
from sin. 

They tell me that horses have no souls, and they all 

declare it true ; 
That shows how little they know, Old Boy, and it 

proves they don't know you. 



262 <Bzttt\Htt} Vision or, 

Well, well, 'tis a mighty question, and quite beyond 

my ken — 
But the more I know about horses like you, the less I 

brag about men. 

Now, trot away to the pasture, and hear the thrushes 

sing, 
And list to the children playing, and hear how T their 

voices ring; 
See the white clouds drifting over, hear the cooling 

brooklets flow — 
Tis a sweet, glad world, Old Billy, and we'll stay 'till 

we have to go. 

Shoot Old Billy! By ginger! They'd better not try 

that on, 
For the man that draws a gun on you, will wish he'd 

never been born; 
They say it will cost to keep you ! All right, you 

have earned it fair; 
So don't you worry, old friend of mine, you shall have 

your honest share. 

You've been a good horse, old fellow, steady, and 

brave and true ; 
You have given us faithful service — done all that a 

horse could do. 
You have earned your keep ; you shall have it ; so live 

as long as you can. 
For justice is justice, and right is right, whether it's 

horse or man. 

— /. C. Cutter. 



Looking OSeponD tif* motin 263 



IN THE SWEET OLD WAY. 

When I had my body, the angel said, 

Who dwelt in the land of the so-called dead, 

I should have done much more that I did not do 

Ere the old, sweet life on the earth was through. 

There is so much now that I would like to say 
To those below in the sweet old way: 
There is so much sorrow and so much gloom 
Since they laid my body in the tomb. 

When I had my body, I counted not 
How intricate is transmitting thought — 
Without the service of that true friend 
Which did my bidding its aid to lend. 

But now I wander unseen around, 
Unable to utter a single sound : 
I cannot say to the ones most dear, 
"I yet can love you, and I am here.'' 

When I had my body, my hands could balm 
The pains and bruises to restful calm ; 
My lips could warn, or give words of cheer, 
To guard and strengthen the friends most near. 

Long weeks go by, and I watch and wait 
To impart a thought of my changed estate. 
They turn to my portrait upon the wall, 
But they give no heed to my spirit call. 



264 dtenDeD Vision or, 

They cannot hear, and they cannot see, 
And it seems so long ere they'll come to me. 
When I had my body, I counted not 
How intricate is transmitting thought. 

I long to speak them a word of cheer ! 
I long to be seen by my loved ones dear ; 
But their doubts shut down like a curtain black, 
And their hopeless grief bars my sad soul back. 

— Anon. 



Looking OSegont! tW ffllotlD 265 

CHAPTER XXI 

WIG- WAGGING FROM GLORY LAND 

Signals From Home. 

Swiftly sailing o'er life's ocean, 

Often rolling in the foam, 
We have longed for sound or signal 

From the dear ones safe at home. 

Chorus. 
Gentle voices from the homeland, 

Often seem to signal me ; 
Tune your harp, ye angel songsters, 

Waft the music o'er life's sea. 

Headed for the peaceful harbor, 
Lo ! a calm spreads o'er the sea ; 

In the peace that follows tempest, 
Loved ones seem to signal me. 

Gentle voices from the homeland, 
Tune your harps, we wait to hear ; 

Let the melody of Heaven 

Ring out now, both loud and clear. 

Those who have the Heavenly Pilot, 
Cast the anchor without harm; 

Though their life is like the ocean, 
Sometimes rough, and sometimes calm. 

— Psychic Songster. 



266 (B^ttnntn Vision ot, 

On the Ocean of Life, especially when 
storms beat heavy upon us, we have longed 
for sound or signal, from the dear ones safe 
at home. 

As a great encamped army sweltering in 
the valley, have longed for the "wig- wag" sig- 
nals which would give them instructions, so 
have we longed for comfort, and timely direc- 
tions from those on the up-lands. 

In army life, a flag is generally used to 
flash out these signals. In life's great battle 
a psychic takes the place of the flag. 

Columbus and his men sailed for weary 
weeks and months over a trackless sea, believ- 
ing there was a promised land beyond the 
waves — believing, but not knowing it. The 
multitudes of earth are on just such an uncer- 
tain voyage. The masses are saying in sacred 
services: "We believe, 5 ' while thousands of 
honest people are saying, "We do not know." 
The truthful agnostic is more honorable than 
the credulous Christian. In this strenuous age 
of great findings, men are no longer content 
to "hope so," or even "believe so." They say, 
"If this cannot be demonstrated, we think best 
to hold the whole subject in abeyance." 



Looking IBeponD fbi* COorlD 267 

"There is too much which can be proved," 
says the hard-headed man of the day, "to be 
annoyed by anything which cannot be 
known." Over the side of the ship, Colum- 
bus, who was sailing by faith, looked for evi- 
dence. Religionists have been content too 
long with faith. Men have gotten into a semi- 
faith rut; and do not seem to be able to ex- 
tricate themselves. Knowledge is better than 
faith; therefore let not faith be a stopping- 
point, but a pathway to knowledge. The 
ones who are looking for evidence are more 
likely to obtain it, than those who sit supine- 
ly by expecting nothing. 

Many of Columbus' crew were sulking, 
hopeless, hearts turned backward, and about 
ready to mutiny. I have reason to fear that a 
great many on life's ocean are before the mast, 
and not behind it; are in the forecastle, and 
not the cabin; are unwilling slaves, not mas- 
ters — seeing nothing, and knowing nothing; 
because they are expecting nothing. Would a 
little rather not have evidence than to have it. 
One day, one blessed day, a bit of "driftwood" 
came floating over the tide; another day "a 
bird's nest." Only little things to be sure; 



268 Catenae D Vision or, 

but they had big evidential value. Every- 
body began to be optimistic from that mo- 
ment. They were like "Hands across the 
sea." The whole matter was settled — they 
had seen a bird's nest ! Doubts were at an end, 
because of a bit of driftwood. Was there ever 
such a message from a bird's nest, or an es- 
caped bit of wood? Surely there was a West- 
ern Continent ! The wood thrown into the sea 
by an Indian proved it. The abandoned nest 
shook from the limb of a tree in new America 
proved it. A vast country, a great continent, 
a model Republic, a world-power, the home of 
the brave and the true, is largely the result 
of those small discoveries. Believing as strong- 
ly in a better land than Columbus looked for; 
sailing toward it with all canvas set; looking 
outward for chips, or nests, or any little indi- 
cation of life beyond: you will, some day, 
see the "wig-wagging," and understand the 
signals long before you put off the mortal 
form. 

Mighty changes have been effected in lines 
of communication between states and nations 
since the days of Columbus ; and the end is not 
yet. The telegraph startled our forebears; 



Looking TBepond this morld 269 

the cablegram made the old folks wonder ; and 
now, wireless telegraphy is locking the world 
in one kindly embrace. The scientific men are 
playing with the stars, to see if sister Mars is 
not about ready to communicate with us. Not 
only this, but since the discovery of telepathy 
in the realm of psychology, great men are by 
the strictest test conditions seeking to com- 
municate with the friends who are supposed to 
have outgrown earth. Many claim this has 
often been done. Robert Louis Stevenson 
sang that the departed friend was straining 
his eyes and whistling to us. 



THE DEPARTED FRIEND. 

Though he that ever kind and true 
Kept stoutly step by step with you 
Your whole long, gusty lifetime through, 

Be gone a while before — 
Be now a moment gone before, 
Yet doubt not; anon the seasons shall restore 

Your friend to you. 

He has but turned a corner— still 
He pushes on with right good will 
Through mire and marsh, by heugh and hill, 



270 CstetttuD Vision or* 

That selfsame arduous way — 
That selfsame upland hopeful way 
That you and he through many a doubtful day 

Attempted still. 

He is not dead, this friend — not dead, 
But in the path we mortals tread 
Got some few trifling steps ahead 

And nearer to the end 
So that you, too, once past this bend, 
Shall meet again, as face to face, this friend 

You fancy dead. 

Push gayly on, strong heart ! The while 
You travel forward mile by mile, 
He loiters with a backward smile, 

Till you can overtake, 
And strains his eyes to search his wake, 
Or, whistling, as he sees you through the brake, 

Waits on a stile. 

— Robert Louis Stevenson. 



Materialists are being converted to a belief 
in, and a knowledge of, the continuity of life ; 
and the possibility, under certain circumstan- 
ces, of hearing the whistle-call from the other 
side. The communications may be fragmen- 
tary, and not always satisfactory; but remem- 
ber the "Bird's-Nest" told the tale of a home 
in other tree-tops, and a song in an undiscov- 
ered country; and the "chip," the tale of chil- 



Looking 15egonD tfjisf motID 271 

dren of nature working beyond the sea. It 
would be quite impossible to go into any coun- 
try, any church, any society, any business cir- 
cle, any scientific body, any denomination, in 
this enlightened age, without finding some 
who, in the sleeping or waking periods of life, 
have not heard from their dead. The Ameri- 
can Indians knew of this on our continent; 
and the people of India and the islands of the 
sea, have been able to discern spirits. The 
English and the American Psychical Socie- 
ties of Research, have done much to lift the 
subject out of the realm of the ludicrous, 
while Spiritualists, Theosophists, Shakers, 
Friends, Mormons, Unitarians, and no end 
of private sensitives, have kept opening up 
fallow ground for the psychological farmers 
to weed out, and fence in. Spiritualists, and 
others, are only the modern Columbuses who 
are looking over the gunwhale of the Ship of 
Time for signals from the better world. Ma- 
terialists, Adventists, and hide-bound relig- 
ionists, are simply the ones who refuse to look 
for evidence ; or believe in it, if others discover 
it. I would rather be a Columbus on the 
"quarter deck" — looking for the new, and bet- 



272 <E£tenDeti 9f0fon or, 

ter life, than a common mariner in the "Fore- 
castle," wasting time in rehearsing pessimis- 
tic views. We do not need to sail West in or- 
der to discover this lovely territory. We do 
not need to leave the East, to look out upon 
it. It lies around us. Let a "Bull's Eye" 
teach a spiritual lesson. This may represent 
the earth — outside and all around it, the at- 
mosphere. Let the "rings" and the "spaces" 
represent the different spheres in the etheric 
belt; where our departed kindred live. They 
may not, necessarily, be confined to a few; 
for there are many — like outlying belts in the 
ether; and these interpenetrate, making com- 
munication with the "Bull's Eye" possible. 
How is this communication effected? Much as 
wireless telegraphic messages are transmitted. 
There is the proper utilization of sending and 
receiving instruments and the belt of ether 
and atmosphere. In the mechanical device 
employed by the wireless people, the two in- 
struments are keyed, or tuned alike. If one 
was set to C natural, and the other to B flat, 
no message would impinge upon them for- 
ever. The instrument might be fearfully and 
wonderfully made, but without accord, no re- 



Looking IBeponD tbi* morlD 273 

suits. Many excellent people do not receive 
word from the departed because they are not 
in tune with the infinite. Harmonious rela- 
tions must exist, if satisfactory results are re- 
corded. Some excellent people are so mate- 
rialistic, even if they are numbered with 
Christians, as to believe there can be no mes- 
sages from the Home Land, because they 
never saw any wires leading into the king- 
dom. A message must be sent with carrying 
power sufficient to reach the receiver. This is 
another reason why some people get nothing 
from the other side of the thin veil. Not all of 
our friends who pass on have the strength, or 
the knowledge, sufficient to transmit a mes- 
sage. We may not realize until we get over 
there that there is much for a spirit to learn 
and take on. The chemical laws of the spirit- 
ual life will be too intricate for many of us, at 
the first, and even by the time our last rela- 
tives or friends leave earth, we may not be 
stalwart, or proficient enough to "wig-wag" 
from Glory. 

Some spirits are able to expel an energy of 
thought which is taken up by the vibratory 
waves around our globe. These waves widen 



274 0£*tenOeH INsion or, 

and widen, until they pass through the ether 
into the atmosphere, and register on any sen- 
sitive instrument attuned to receive them. This 
is the reason that mediums pick up messages 
which we let pass by. A boy on a house top 
will pick up a communication off the wire- 
less receiver which a Marconi or De Forest 
system will fail to register. He and his in- 
strument are in tune with the sender, while 
the other ones are temporarily out of har- 
mony. The sending and receiving instru- 
ments must each be sanctified — that is, set 
apart for this specific purpose. This is an- 
other reason why sensitives get messages from 
our loved ones when we cannot sense them. 
The wireless telegraphy machines do not run 
"A Banking House," "A Wall Street Tick- 
er," "A Bureau of Information," "Games, 
Races, and Fights," or "A Society Gossip- 
shop." It stands in its quiet place for one 
purpose, and one only — viz.: to send and re- 
ceive messages between distant points. The 
true medium occupies just that relation to 
things of the spirit, and thus is able to inter- 
pret the "wig-wag" messages from Glory 
Land. 



Looking IBeponU this ft&orHi 275 

The first message sent over the Atlantic 
Cable is still on record and covers little space 
on the printed page. The multitudinous ones 
which have followed would fill volumes enough 
to stock the famous old Alexandrian library. 
It is really impossible to tell when the first 
spirit message came to earth. The initial one 
in the Book of Genesis, was when a spirit vis- 
ited a celebrated couple in a celebrated gar- 
den, at the cool of the day. These communi- 
cations have been augmented until one hun- 
dred Alexandrian libraries could not contain 
the revelations. Many Bible students in all 
their readings by course, and in their topical 
research, have failed to notice how very full 
that old book is of these remarkable manifes- 
tations. In order that such may see that this 
was no misunderstood topic in the days of old, 
we append some of the references to spirit 
manifestations. They take such well known 
phases as "Trumpet Speaking," "Spirit Writ- 
ing," "Independent Voices," "Trance," 
"Healings," "Levitation," "Materialization," 
etc., etc. 

Materialization — Genesis, iii : 8 ; Genesis, 
xviii : I ; Genesis, xxxii : 24 ; Exodus, xxiv : 10, 



276 <E*tettDeD Vision ot, 

■ ■ i ■ i w i ny m ■ ii 

11; Daniel, y: 5; Luke, xxiv: 15, 16, 29, 80, 
81; John, xx : 19, 30. 

Spirit writing — II. Chronicles, xxxi: 12; 
Daniel, v; 5. 

Independent spirit writing — Exodus, xxiv: 
12; Exodus, xxxi: 18; Exodus, xxxii: 16; 
Exodus, xxxiv: 1; Deut., y: 22; Deut., ix: 
10. 

Trumpet speaking — Exodus, xix: 13, 18, 
19; Exodus, xx: 18; Revelations, i: 10. 

Trance — Genesis, xv: 12, 17; Daniel, viii: 
18; Daniel, x: 9; Acts, ix: 3, 9; Acts, xxii: 
17; II. Cor., xii: 2. 

Healing — Numbers, xxi: 8, 9; II. Kings, 
v: 1, 14; I. Kings, xvii: 17, 24; II. Kings, iv: 
18, 37. 

Disciples charged to heal sick — Matthew, 
x: 8; Luke, ix: 2; Luke, x: 9. 

Disciples heal the sick — Acts, xiv: 8, 10; 
Acts, iii: 1, 8. 

Healing — Nfew Testament — Jesus healer — 
Matthew, xii: 10, 13; Luke, xiv: 2, 4; Mark, 
iii: 2, 5; John, iv: 47, 54; Luke, ix: 11; Luke, 
y: 17, 25. 

Healing by magnetized articles — II. Kings, 
iv: 29; Acts, xix: 11, 12. 



Looking 15epon0 tftf* S&oriO 277 

Independent spirit voices — Deut., ix: 12, 
13; L Samuel, iii: 3, 9; Ezekiel i: 25; Mat- 
thew, xvii: 5; John, xii: 28, 29, 30; Acts, vii: 
80, 31; Acts, ix: 4, 7; Acts xi: 7, 8, 9. 

Spirit levitation — I. Kings, xviii: 12; Eze- 
kiel, iii: 13, 14; Ezekiel, viii: 3; Acts, viii: 39; 
possibly also Matthew, iv: 1. 

Spirit tests — Genesis, xxiv: 14, 19; Judges, 
vi: 36, 40; I. Samuel, i: 10, 11, 17, 26, 27; 
I. Samuel, x: 2, 6, 9, 10. 

Spirit Communication in dreams — Job, 
xxxiii: 15; Joel, ii: 28; Genesis, xxviii: 12; 
Genesis, xxxi: 24; Genesis, xxxvii: 5; Gene- 
sis, xii. 

Gifts of healing — I. Cor., xii: 9, 28. 

Since Bible days these vibratory waves have 
been still coming earthward. Some have re- 
ceived them; others have been so concerned 
with earthly affairs they have had no time or 
disposition to entertain them. 

The old Church Fathers were not unac- 
quainted with them. The Kings and Rulers 
of this world have entertained angels in their 
palaces down the ages to the present time. 
John Wesley, Martin Luther, and Imanuel 
Swedenborg, knew much about this subject. 



278 <E*tenOeD Vision or, 

The Fox sisters (Methodists) introduced 
modern spiritualism to the world. Harriet 
Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Judge 
Edmonds, Russel Dale Owen, D. D. Home, 
Andrew Jackson Davis, Margaret Gaul, and 
myriads of arisen ones of recent times were in 
rapport with them. Rev. May Pepper Van- 
derbilt, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Zadia B. 
Kates, W. J. Colville, William E. Stead, and 
a vast army still here on the ocean of life 
are giving us new evidences, all the time. We, 
in common with the masses of unnamed ones, 
have both seen and heard. What a wonderful 
picture we might hang on our walls if some 
artist were but able to show us the barque of 
life — in it the baby eyes, the eyes of male and 
female looking over the ocean for evidences, 
and the smiling faces of those who are able to 
get the love-tidings on the receiving instru* 
ment of their organism. Then turning his 
camera to the etheric belt, gauge it for a time 
exposure as the earth wheeled on its axis; 
while he had photographed all the beautiful 
spirits who are transmitting messages from 
the land where there are no graves. These 
companion pictures would gladden the heart 



Jtoofeing TSegonD this moiin 279 

of the most despondent ; and they might, per- 
chance, find some of their own arisen ones 
about to send tidings to them. Hopeless ones 
would find hope springing anew in the breast. 
Those who have heard of that land and its 
inhabitants, but have seen neither the float- 
ing "Bird's Nest" or "Driftwood" prophecies 
of that which lie beyond; would rejoice at the 
thought of quick intercourse. And those who 
have the "Letters from Heaven," would stand 
ready to give their contents to the multitude. 

It would take too many pages to rehearse 
the letters which have already been received. 
After all, people are not so much concerned 
with that which the postman brings to others, 
as that which is addressed to themselves. 

We will only remind you of one visitation 
of spirit-persons to the earth which most, who 
read these pages, will be willing to credit. Je- 
sus, Peter, James and John saw Moses and 
Elias, and talked with them. If they could 
pay a visit to the shores of Time — after hav- 
ing been gone from the earth until years had 
run into hundreds, and thousands — think you 
not your friends who have been gone so short 
a time, may come or may send consolation? 



280 <£*ten&eti Vision or, 

Nearly every home of death has entertained 
angels unawares — seen only by those who 
were passing out. 

Many are living on the earth who have 
never seen a soldier stand on the apex of a 
summit, and "wig- wag" a message with the 
flag of our Nation to the weary uniformed 
soldiers below. Some may even doubt the 
truth of such communication. Many are liv- 
ing on earth who have never been convinced 
that we can hear from "Those we loved long 
since, and lost awhile." 

My closing suggestion to you is, as your 
"Barque of Life" sails on towards "Good- 
Man's-Land," that you keep it in good trim. 
After directing the crew take time frequent- 
ly, to keep the "weather eye" over the hull 
looking for "Signals from Home." 

In the hour that seems as all but lost, it 
may be at the Moon Light Watch evidence 
may come to you, which will make your spirit 
jubilant. The eye of your soul will be opened, 
and you will see that your friends are "wig- 
wagging" to you from "Glory Land." The 
ears of your soul will be unstopped, and you 
will hear the order to move out of the sun- 



Looking TBeponD tbi* CfflorlD 281 

scorched place of misery, into a new and un- 
discovered realm. Then you will wonder why 
others refuse to look, and you will urge the 
common sailors to be Spiritual Masters. From 
the hill-tops they are wig-wagging to us now. 



THE END 



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